By Hank Russell
Some parents look to adopt children from other parts of the world who have special needs so they can give them a better life. However, the obstacles involved in the adoption process — such as the paperwork, travel arrangements and expenses involved — can prove to be onerous. However, one local charity has been helping parents achieve their dreams.
The Rollstone Foundation — founded by Michael Dawidziak and Pamela Greene in 2008 — has helped 725 children get adopted since its inception. Further, the organization has given out $1.6 million in grants to families looking to adopt a special needs child. Dawidziak said the money is raised through donations, but mostly through events they host, including the Nineteenth Annual Save More Gala, which will take place on May 13 at the Bourne Mansion, located at 500 Montauk Highway in Montauk. Last year’s event drew 250 people and raised $177,845.
This year’s honorees are the Molloy family — wife Sarah, husband Michael, and their children Susan, Michael, Thomas, Christopher, Mary and Ben, the latter whom they adopted from Bulgaria and who has Down syndrome. “I’m excited to have a Long Island family as honorees for the first time,” Dawidziak said.
Dawidziak met the Molloys on a pilgrimage to Italy in March 2025 and told them about Rollstone. He said the family wanted to adopt a child, but they didn’t have the money, so their parish, St. Aiden in Williston Park, by holding a fundraiser for them. When they came back from Italy, “we gave them a grant and were able to adopt Ben,” Dawidziak said.
The reason the group is able to provide such generous grants, Dawidziak said, is that there are no overhead costs for renting or buying a building and staff. He was once told by a friend who also runs a nonprofit that he had “the purest charity there is” and noted that not all organizations can run the same way Rollstone can. “That’s not realistic,” he said.
Additionally, no one on the board — President Frank M. Maffei, Jr., Esq., Vice President Colleen West, Founding Board Member Mark Murray, and Board Members Donna Brown, Peter L. Kramer, Janet Longo, Andrea Casey, Dawn L. Hargreaves, Shawn A. Weis, Peter E. Williams and Dorothy M. Bagnato — takes a dime in salary. This is in sharp contrast to other nationally known charities that rake in millions of dollars in donations, much of it going to executives and board members being paid six-figure salaries and not directing all the money raised to the cause they claim to support.
“The organization was founded on the premise that money should never be the barrier in saving a child’s life,” Dawidziak said. “Everybody on the board is dedicated to that premise. It’s one child at a time.”
When Dawidziak, the board’s treasurer, and Greene, its secretary, began to form the board, they brought on Murray. “For every application we got, [the parents] got a grant,” he said. “We weren’t that very well-known yet, so, in the beginning, we had to go one-for-one. Soon, demand outstripped supply — demand being applications, and supply being money.”
Quoting the line from Jaws — “we’re gonna need a bigger boat — Dawidziak, Greene and Murray decided to expand the board and add more people. However, Dawidziak told Greene and Murray, “‘OK, but we’re going to be very, very careful on who we bring on the board. We need everybody rowing in the same direction. We’re not going to have factions, we’re not going to bring somebody in because they’re rich or they can raise a lot of money. We are going to bring people on board who are dedicated to the mission.’ We did everything spectacularly well.”
Dawidziak said the current board is “cohesive and extremely dedicated,” adding, “They are generous with their time, their treasures and their talents.”
“I support Rollstone because it’s one of the best causes I’ve ever seen,” Williams, of Bayport, said. “There’s an immediate impact on the people it helps. Your money goes directly to the families.”
For Maffei, the organization’s mission is personal, as his brother and sister-in-law adopted a baby boy and he is the child’s godfather.
“I was intimately aware of the stress of the process, as well as, the financial toll it can take on families,” Maffei said. “When I became aware that not only were so many families willing to adopt, but to adopt special needs children, I was humbled by their compassion, sacrifice and unselfish love and devotion to those less fortunate.”
Maffei continued, “To be able to play even a small role like we do is incredibly rewarding and provides reassurance that our society in so many instances steps up when the need is the greatest. My colleagues on the board are selfless and compassionate and as the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz said…. ‘good deed doers.’ Being a part of Rollstone is, at many times, bittersweet, as we get great joy in helping and yet at the same time know the need is daunting.”
According to Dawidziak, there are currently 147 million orphans around the world. “In America, we have this idea of taking care of orphans, especially orphans with special needs,” he said. “That’s not the attitude in most countries. They say these orphans are at the bottom of the barrel. They’re not even in the barrel; they’re below the barrel.”
He recalled a family adopting three children from Ukraine four years ago. In the first trip, they only took two boys, ages 14 and 13, and had to go to Poland to escape the bombing. When they came to the U.S., the older child weighed only 13 pounds, while his brother weighed only 17 pounds.
Orphanages that operate in other countries, “ just put [the child] in a crib and nobody takes care of them,” Dawidziak said. “These [orphans] are in a terrible position because they don’t get the care and resources that orphans get in America. … Different countries differ in their level of care. A lot of charities say, ‘It’s all about the children.’ We tend to say, ‘It’s all about the parents’ because they really are the Rollstone story.”
Dawidziak was asked if any of the parents have given up on the child because it is too difficult to care for them. He said that has never happened. “They know they are adopting a child with special needs,” he said. “They really don’t know what kind of care that child’s going to need [but] they know what they are signing up for.” He also noted that some of the children have been re-adopted by Rollstone families after other non-Rollstone families said they “couldn’t handle them.”
The organization is named after the rolling of the stone that entombed Christ after the crucifixion. Dawidziak, who is a deacon at the Our Lady of the Snow Catholic Church in Blue Point notes the symbolism behind the resurrection and the call to dedicate one’s lives to others.
“Imagine these parents are choosing to do this and signing up for a lifetime of caring,” Dawidziak said. “These are incredibly special people. These are modern-day saints.”
“Adoptive families are angels on Earth and that’s an understatement!” Maffei added.
For more information, or to donate, visit rollstone.us.