Brendan House will open this fall thanks to generous $20,000 donation from pastor

It’s been almost a year since the opening of the Brendan House was delayed by an unexpectedly large water hook-up fee, but thanks to a generous $20,000 donation from a Bohemia pastor, the region’s first home for traumatic brain injury survivors is finally planning its opening date.

“This was the last big hurdle,” said Allyson Scerri, executive director of New Beginnings, which is building the group home. “We’re really getting close.”

The Sound Avenue group home has been under construction since 2011, leaving its future residents – like 19-year-old Riverhead resident Michael Hubbard – in limbo as its volunteers worked to raise enough money to cover the costs to open it.

But last summer, with renovations nearly complete and an opening date set for winter 2015, the Brendan House was slapped with an unexpected water hook-up fee of almost $50,000 to bring the Riverhead Water District line across Sound Avenue to the home.

Though the fee was eventually reduced to $20,000 by Riverhead Town, New Beginnings was still struggling to raise the money to pay for this final expense.

And then Pastor Bert Crabbe of True North Church in Bohemia stepped in.

Crabbe was the first person to ever donate to New Beginnings before the group officially opened the Medford-based traumatic brain injury community center in 2011.

“He’s been there since the very beginning,” Scerri said. “We had a walk-a-thon in 2009 to raise awareness about TBI, and he was our very first donation then. He even brought crayons to the event for kids to play with.”

Sometime last month, Scerri recalls lamenting to him about the woes the group was facing.

“We were on the phone and I just poured my heart out about everything we were going through,” she said. “He told me, ‘in a week, you’re going to get something in the mail, and when you do, I want you to call me.’”

Five days later, an envelope came in the mail. “When I saw it, I had to do a double take,” Scerri said. A check was enclosed. “At first I thought it said $2,000, but then I looked closer and my jaw just dropped.”

Crabbe had written New Beginnings a check for $20,000 to cover the full cost of the water hookup. Scerri called him immediately.

“We were both so excited,” she said. “He’s always been a huge supporter of ours, he loves being able to help and he loves all the work we’ve done. I couldn’t stop screaming.”

With the water hookup out of the way, there is very little left standing between the Brendan House and it’s grand opening, which Scerri says is now tentatively slated for September.

“It’s just odds and ends, now,” Scerri said. “We have to dig the trench for the water, but after that I’m confident we’ll get it done. Heating, air conditioning, plumbing — we’re going to get this all done during the summer and hope to open in September.”
When completed, the Brendan House will be home to 12 survivors of traumatic brain injury. There is no long-term care facility that can house them east of Queens.

New Beginnings is holding another fundraiser to cover the remaining costs of the renovation during its annual golf outing.

“We’re getting so close. Pastor Bert has done so much for us,” Scerri said. “We are extremely grateful to him. He did the blessing on the building when we first opened New Beginnings, and he’s going to do the blessing on the Brendan House when we finally open the doors this year.