The Methuen Branch of the Merrimack Valley YMCA honors each year a person who has shown a track record of work and sacrifice for the protection of children in our communities. In its 4th year celebration, they joined Holy Family Hospital, The National Exchange Club, The Irish Cottage, and the Michael B. Christensen Community and Family Support Center at GLCAC Inc in Honoring Larry and Eileen Giordano and the Foster Kids of the Merrimack Valley.
Larry Giordano is the President and Founder of Foster Kids of the Merrimack Valley, Inc., which reaches out and supports the growing needs of foster children in the Merrimack Valley region. Larry was raised as a foster child, is a recognized leader in the Merrimack Valley with an exceptional resume of community service.
He was abandoned by his mother in a Springfield hotel when he was five days old. He lived in a foster home until he was 17, at which time he entered the US Air Force. His years in foster care shaped the man Larry Gagnon became and as a tribute to his foster mother, he took her surname Giordano and became Larry Giordano. Due to his experience as a foster child, he knows the value of community support and aims to help the foster children in the Merrimack Valley grow up and get the help they need to be successful. In previous years, Larry served as City Councilor, Commissioner of Public Safety, Methuen State Representative and Methuen Police Officer. Larry, along with his sons Lonnie and Stephen own and operate the Methuen Karate Association.
While thanking the audience for his award, Larry explained that there is a 25% increase this year in the opioids crisis and there are 10,000 children in Massachusetts under state care. “We must help these children grow and heal,” he said.
“I grew up during the Michael Dukakis Administration and he created the slogan ‘make it in MA’. I am one of those kids who made it in MA.”
The Giordano family is working on their biggest challenge to date: The construction of a transition home for young people who move out of the foster care system at 18 years of age. This home will allow them to learn to be on their own.
For contributions or more information on Foster Kids of the Merrimack Valley, contact them at PO Box 2166, Methuen, MA 01844 / 978-771-2150.
Speech offered by Daisy Gabriel student of Esperanza Academy in Lawrence
Good Morning everyone.
My name is Daisy Gabriel and I would like to thank you for coming today and listening to everyone speak.
Child abuse is not simply beating a child with one’s hands. Abuse comes in so many forms — such as mental, sexual, and verbal. No abuse is better or worse than the other because sexually abusing anyone and especially a child is just as horrible and inhumane as verbally abusing a child. Abuse doesn’t always come from a child’s parent: it can come from any adult in a child’s life.
Any abuse can alter a child’s life. Abuse robs children of their innocence and sometimes of their life. Around 5 kids die per day due to abuse of any kind. Instead of 5 kids per day, that number should be 0. No one should be abused — period — but children, they just came into the world, and they have a whole life to live. Adolescence and growing up is a time to have fun and be yourself but when you are being abused every day at home it’s hard to have fun, be happy, or show your true self.
Why does child abuse happen?
That’s a question I’ve asked myself since I’ve heard about this event and while I was writing this speech. Why do people feel the need to hurt someone “lesser” or “smaller” than them. I don’t have an answer to this question, and I don’t think anyone does. Maybe people do it in order to boost their ego or feel powerful. Regardless of the reason, no reason is a “right” reason to hurt a child.
In a perfect world, no child abuse would exist. No kid would be afraid to go home or to an uncle’s house or have to feel the wrath of an adult’s words at school. No kids would die due to child abuse. In this world no one would have the incentive to abuse children but to nurture them and support them in their growth as humans. All the children in the world would be happy and hold their innocence close to their heart for as long as they could. I wish this were true, but sadly we do not yet live in a perfect world.
In order to get as close as we can to that perfect world for all of the children we love and care about, we need to end child abuse. Everyone in this room can contribute to ending child abuse. Whether it’s putting some flyers around your community or organizing a march to raise awareness. If all of us work together not only as a community but as a state, country, and as a world in general, it will take some work and persistence, but I have hope that we can do it all together and succeed. Thank you so much for listening and coming today. I hope each and every one of you has learned something new from my speech or that I have inspired you to start something in order to end child abuse. Thank you.
