After seven years at the helm of the Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation, executive director Cathy Demeroto was honored last week by the Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force with this year’s Helen W. Prince Award for her years of dedicated service to the North Fork’s neediest residents.
Last month, in a letter to the North Fork community, Ms. Demeroto said she is stepping down from the organization to focus her time and attention on her family.
At a ceremony at Peconic Landing last week, CAST board member Bridget Elkin told the audience that when Ms. Demeroto came to CAST, it was “small and operating in a rented location on a limited budget.”
“Cathy had a mission to expand and secure additional funding, both privately and federally, [so CAST could] serve more community members,” Ms. Elkin said. “Fast-forward seven years, and it is difficult to overstate Cathy’s impact on the organization.”
When Ms. Demeroto started, Ms. Elkin added, CAST was serving 30,000 to 40,000 meals annually. This year, the nonprofit is on track to serve more than 450,000 meals.
“It’s clear that Cathy’s decision to lead CAST wasn’t just a professional move,” Ms. Elkin concluded. “It was a deeply personal one, driven by her desire to make a meaningful difference and serve our society’s most vulnerable population.”
Much of the time she led CAST was through a “global pandemic, a capital campaign, a planned move to [CAST’s] new, permanent home, 40-year high inflation and an affordable housing crisis,” said CAST client support services coordinator Daniella Menjivar.
CAST president Mark Sokol said that when he joined the organization, in 2013, its budget was $280,000. Now, he said, it’s “more than ten times that.”
A town proclamation read aloud last week by Southold Town Board member Brian Mealy noted that Ms. Demeroto has “demonstrated visionary leadership, growing [CAST’s] presence, responsiveness and service to the underserved and struggling people of Southold Town.”
She “distinguished herself as a relentless advocate for the provision of safety nets and the promotion of self-sufficiency” and “demonstrated extraordinary commitment towards supporting people of all ages, including families with young children and struggling adults and seniors, and has made a positive impact for low-income at-risk immigrant families, promoting inclusiveness, respect and equal opportunity for everyone,” the proclamation declared.
In a moving acceptance speech that at times brought tears to her eyes, Ms. Demeroto said her compass is her Catholic faith.
“I have a strong faith that is rooted in Catholic social teaching. I attended Catholic school through grade eight and went to a Jesuit College, Boston College. At the core of Catholic social teaching is the common good, human dignity and solidarity,” she said. “Advocating for the common good begins with the protection of human dignity …The principle of solidarity recognizes that we are one human family, despite nationality, ethnicity, ideology or status, and we are to love our neighbors.”
In college, Ms. Demeroto spent a “Justice Semester” at Washington D.C.’s American University that she described as “life altering.” She met with Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, executive branch officials, she said, and toured a maximum security prison, where she interviewed inmates about their living conditions. She met with prosecutors and public defenders, and toured a psychiatric hospital. She also volunteered at food pantries.
She did an overnight ride-along in Southeast D.C., where, she said, “I ended up in a housing project in the middle of the night and witnessed a domestic violence incident and a stabbing two feet in front of me — just to name a few of my experiences.”
That particular experience “opened my eyes to the many injustices occurring all around me, and I knew I wanted to do something to promote equity and justice,” she said.
After her graduation from Boston College, Ms. Demeroto went to George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. She got married there and had two children.
She went on to work as a lobbyist and public policy expert for Catholic Charities in Boston, the oldest and largest Catholic charity in the U.S., advocating for vulnerable populations, including low-income seniors, people with developmental disabilities, the homeless, abused and neglected children, the formerly incarcerated and victims of domestic violence.
From there, Ms. Demeroto said, “I was asked to start a statewide coalition called Energy Advocates. I wanted to say no. I knew nothing about the regulation of utility companies, and even the thought of it made me anxious.
“But I did know that vulnerable people in Baltimore were dying during extreme temperatures when their heat or electric was turned off for non-payment. With teams of lawyers for the many utility companies in the state of Maryland on the opposite side, I garnered the courage, although I was terrified, to advocate on behalf of low-income families before the Maryland Public Service Commission and the legislature, because it was the right thing to do.”
Ms. Demeroto moved on to lead the nonprofit Maryland Hunger Solutions to combat poverty and hunger statewide.
“I was asked singlehandedly to plan and host a multi-day statewide hunger conference for hundreds of people — including elected and acquainted officials working in the anti-hunger, anti-poverty arena. I had no planning committee, no administrative assistant … I wanted to say no. I knew nothing about planning a conference with keynote speakers, caterers, expert panels and a photography exhibit. I can barely plan a children’s birthday party, and I was busy with my regular responsibilities, but I knew that these were important topics and this would help raise awareness.”
She went on to work for paws4people, an organization that trains service dogs for veterans and children with disabilities, before taking the helm of CAST in the spring of 2017.
In 2019, Ms. Demeroto was named The Suffolk Times Community Leader of the Year for her efforts in drawing awareness to the issues of hunger and poverty on the North Fork.
Two years later, under Ms. Demeroto’s leadership, CAST purchased the former Southold Methodist Church on Main Road for $2.8 million — finally giving the itinerant organization a permanent home.
“We knew we had found the right place for CAST,” she said. “And with the support of so many compassionate and generous people in the community, we have built a thriving community resource center in the heart of Southold Town that is providing necessities, resources and educational opportunities, uplifting families and building a more equitable community.”