Listening to a silent muse, Blue Point’s Mary Bailey and Bellport’s Isabella Rossellini both steadily sought actions to improve their communities. Their endeavors kept going over the years, taking hours, devotion, learning things they never knew, sometimes experiencing pushback or setbacks, but both persevered.

Their personal mantra: Never give up.

Bailey and Rossellini were recently celebrated for their efforts at Brookhaven Town Hall with Special Commendation Awards during the town’s 39th annual Women’s Recognition Night.

What a night! It was standing-room-only.

Bailey is the mother of two boys: Liam, a Suffolk County police detective, and Jack, an environmentalist. She’s currently a substitute aide at Sayville High School.

When Meadow Croft, the beautiful John Ellis Roosevelt estate under the stewardship of the now Bayport-Blue Point Heritage, needed a firecracker new board member, she was tapped.

Her neighbor, Joe Novak, invited her to a meeting in 2012.

She went.

“We go upstairs and there are 10 board members. And they say, ‘Let’s vote Mary in.’”

That was a surprise. “I thought, ‘What the heck did I get into?!’”

Two years later, after her role as acting vice president, she became president. “I had to figure out how to write grants,” she said of the estimation of costs and items required. She cites legislators Anthony Piccirillo and Dominick Thorne with their support.

The beautiful historic mansion off Middle Road is now 99 percent renovated. The carriage house is next on the list. “We want to install the horse stalls that were there,” she said.

The big project still in the works, beginning in 2017, is the Avery’s Five Mile Look Hotel’s stone entry wall and fountain. The hotel has a storied history as a 1913 boarding house/hotel facing the Great South Bay, ruined in a fire in 1939. Its stone wall remained and is now completely restored from a crumbling heap at the end of Blue Point Avenue. “I got involved seven years ago when a friend suggested, ‘You should get that hotel wall back up.’” Thanks to pro-bono masonry work  from Rich LoDuca of LoDuca Associates Inc., with a push from the Blue Point Civic Association, the Department of Environmental Conservation and Suffolk legislators Piccirillo and Thorne (they obtained a $15,000 preservation grant), the stone wall and some cleanup work has created a beautiful area leading to the Blue Point Dock; the old fountain is next.

Councilman Neil Foley, who met Bailey 20 years ago, also mentioned Bailey’s involvement with establishing the Blue Point Preserve. “She’s been a mentor and friend and a person to rely on for the Blue Point community. When the Blue Point Civic was created, she was part of the team looking to enhance the neighborhood on so many different levels. When Gene Horton (a beloved Blue Point historian and resident) passed, Mary took up a lot of Gene’s passion.”

Equally active is Bellport resident Isabella Rossellini, who purchased a swath of land in Brookhaven hamlet in 2013 after learning the owners were leaning towards developing it. (She owns 26.9 acres.) Mama Farm emerged: an organic farm that raises heritage chickens, turkeys, other farm animals and bees. (She also earned a master’s degree in animal behavior and conservation from Hunter College during that time.) Besides the farm, it morphed into a bed-and-breakfast, and a destination offering community events now headed up by her daughter, Elettra Wiedemann, in charge of programming and overseeing classes, workshops and retreats. (Passionate about sustainability and food, Wiedemann holds an M.S. of Science from the London School of Economics in Biomedicine.) 

Rossellini lent her support to The Gateway, offering her theatrical productions at fundraisers, as well as appearances with films and discussions at Plaza Cinema & Media Arts Center (she is a board member) and the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society, where her fundraising efforts included an exhibit of her heritage chickens, photographed by Patrice Casanova.

(These surprisingly glam creatures were expressively camera ready, thanks to Casanova’s skill.)

She also raised two children, Elettra Wiedemann, who now manages the farm and its bed-and-breakfast as well as special events, and son Roberto, a model and photographer (stints include Vogue and Vogue Italia). Roberto studied marine biology for two years, then segued to the International Center for Photography, where he graduated with a degree in underwater photography. Rossellini has said her son gave the extra push to move to the country (Bellport).

Rossellini was asked about her community activism. She could have just made movies and raised her kids.

“At first, like many New Yorkers, I came a few weekends in the summers,” she said. “Then I bought a house and started to come every weekend, even in the winter. Then the house became my principal residence, and I sold the apartment in the city. The ease and kindness of the community attracted me more and more, but I realized  it was my responsibility to maintain things I love, like culture, theater and cinema  (the BBHS, Gateway, Plaza Cinema). Also, good food and nature  (Mama Farm). It was a slow ‘love affair’ that grew in the span of  40 years’ time.”

Councilman Michael Loguercio has known Rossellini since he first ran for election in 2015.

“We became friends and worked with each other on projects I helped her with,” he said. “I’ve been to Mama Farm several times. She’s a wonderful lady and we speak often, and her award is really a combination of everything she’s done not only in the entertainment world, but the community, with her support for the several local nonprofits but also, for example, even helping Bellport High School students learn about agritourism. She’s become a friend, and I’m honored and blessed to have her friendship.”