Friday, July 11, 2025
The Backyard Players & Friends, an inclusive, arts-based community program based in Rockville Centre, got a break from Mother Nature and raised over $12,000 during its inaugural Walk for the Backyard fundraiser at South Side High School on May 30.
The rain that plagued Long Island last week held off long enough so that over 100 people could attend and enjoy an evening of walking around the South Side track, good music and refreshments as they helped raise money for the Backyard Players and Love, Nana, a spinoff community service program that was designed to help young mothers and families in need gain access to baby clothes, books and other accessories.
“We used to have the dance-a-thon over at the Rec Center and we just thought it would be fun to try to do something different, so that’s where we came up with the idea of the walk-a-thon,” Backyard co-founder Cristine Daly said.
“Nana” is the nickname for Joan Hyland, the mother of Daly and her sister and Backyard’s other co-founder Ellen White.
“A few years ago, my nephew met someone who just had a new family and needed a little support, so he came to Nana and said, ‘Do we have any clothes if we have any clothes or anything that I can give this family to help them?’” Daly said. “So, Nana started to create some bundles and she did it with donations from our family and then kind of realized that this is pretty cool thing that I can continue doing.”
Daly was especially impressed that the attendees went beyond just those connected to the Backyard Players.
“We had families coming out, younger kids, we had some sports teams that came and attended, so it was a feel-good walk,” she said. “The whole reason behind that was we didn’t just want to have the Backyard Players and their families to come, we really wanted it to be a true community event and we were really happy that we had well over 100 people attend.”
The money was raised through a registration fee, sponsors that paid a monetary amount per lap and a raffle that collected $4,115.
