Anna Mandara never wanted to be a fighter. Motherhood made her one

When Annamaria “Anna” Mandara became a mother, she never expected the role would lead her into decades of advocacy.

But after her daughter, Gianna, was born with Down syndrome in 2008, motherhood changed the way Mandara saw the world — and the way she believed the world should see her daughter.

“I'm an angry advocate, I’m a fighter, but I'm an angry fighter,” she said. “You can never sit down and advocate for your child without a fight.”

But long before she became an advocate for her daughter, Mandara had already developed a deep instinct to care for others.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — which also fell on his birthday — Anna’s husband, Alex Mandara, a Navy Reserve member and now commander of VFW Post 8328, was called to active duty. Before his deployment, Alex spent time searching the rubble of the World Trade Center, adding another chapter to Anna’s experience as a military spouse as she balanced family responsibilities while supporting his service.

Alex had joined the Navy after completing boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, training as a hull maintenance technician before beginning service aboard the USS Enterprise in 1991 during the Gulf War. He spent five years aboard the Navy’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier before continuing his 22-year career in the Navy Reserve aboard the USS Ogden, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, traveling around the world.

During that time, Anna saw firsthand the challenges faced by military families. Driving from her job in White Plains to the naval base in Groton, Connecticut, she met other military spouses, including some with three or four children, whose husbands had been deployed overseas.

“The uncertainty of that life really touched me,” she said of military life.

“Can I do this? Who do I call for this?” she recalled asking her husband. She wanted to help in any way she could. “Maybe I could bake cookies for the kids. What do they need? Do you think they need clothes?

“It was just the beginning of something for me.”

Anna and Alex moved to Yorktown in 2005. Alex retired from the Navy Reserve in November 2012 and began working for Entergy Nuclear at the Indian Point Energy Center.

That desire to help others has continued throughout Anna's life — first through supporting military families, and later through advocating for her daughter and others with disabilities.

The Mandaras endured years of uncertainty before becoming parents. Military deployments delayed their plans to start a family. Then Anna suffered the devastating loss of a son late in pregnancy. When she became pregnant again, every doctor’s appointment came with anxiety.

When Gianna was born on July 23, 2008, she spent a week in the neonatal intensive care unit while Anna recovered from a severe staph infection. Anna did not hold her daughter until five days after birth.

A physician later informed the family that Gianna likely had Down syndrome. But Anna said the way the diagnosis was delivered shaped her perspective on how families should be supported.

“He made it seem like it was the worst thing in the world,” she said.

Anna remembers her husband looking at the physician and responding, “‘What do you want her to do? Put her back in her stomach? This is our daughter,’” she recalled.

The experience changed her life.

She became determined to improve how hospitals deliver diagnoses to new parents, working with medical professionals to encourage more compassionate conversations and better information about available services.

Within days of bringing Gianna home, therapists and early intervention specialists began visiting the family’s house.

“I didn’t know anything about services,” Anna said, adding that there wasn’t much explanation or guidance about the resources available to families like hers.

As Gianna entered school, Anna’s advocacy shifted to education.

She began questioning why students with special needs ate lunch separately, had different recess schedules and were isolated from their peers. She said she saw things “that didn’t make sense.”

She volunteered in classrooms nearly every day, helping launch programs that brought general education students into special education classrooms to read, play games and build friendships.

She later organized after-school activities, including dance, Lego and sewing programs, where children with and without disabilities participated together.

Her goal was simple: create opportunities for children to see one another as classmates and friends first. Anna said she began questioning anything she felt was not inclusive and looked for ways to create change.

“I'll fight for Gianna, but I'll fight for anybody else's child. I'm the mom who says, ‘You let me know if they don't do that.’ 
I'll be there right by your side, and I will speak for them,” Anna said.

She told Yorktown News she knows firsthand what it is like to discuss documents such as an Individualized Education Program, or IEP — a legally binding document that outlines the specialized instruction, accommodations and related services a public school must provide to a student with a qualifying disability — without knowing the law while also trying to advocate for her child.

More recently, Anna spent a few years working to bring the Best Buddies program to the Lakeland Central School District, creating opportunities for students with and without disabilities to build meaningful friendships.

Beyond her own family, Anna’s advocacy expanded throughout the community.

She has become involved with the Lakeland Special Education PTA, volunteered with organizations including Toys for Tots and veterans groups, and served on a committee that helped design the inclusive playground at Granite Knolls. Her community involvement has also included work with the Girl Scouts and GiGi’s Playhouse, a nonprofit that provides free therapeutic and educational programs for individuals with Down syndrome. She has successfully advocated for discounted town pool passes for veterans.

Today, Anna works part time in the Yorktown Town Clerk’s Office's records department. The office has welcomed Gianna, allowing her to accompany her mother, help with tasks such as stuffing envelopes and filing, and gain workplace experience.

For Anna, it is another example of what inclusion can look like when communities create opportunities for individuals with disabilities. She hopes municipalities across the region will adopt similar employment programs.

“It just opens up my heart. I love this,” she said. “I think that if we implement it, let’s be a doorway for these other towns and villages and say, ‘Listen, we started this program. You should do it. Teach them skills, and they can then move on to something else. But let’s be that portal.’”

For Anna, inclusion is not about one program or one initiative. It is about recognizing the value of every person and caring about your neighbors.

She recalled a moment at one of Gianna’s horseback riding lessons when another young woman was struggling with the zipper on her boot. Anna stepped forward to help her, a small gesture that reflected the kind of everyday compassion she believes builds a more inclusive community.

"If we all tried a little harder, do you know how wonderful it would be,” she said. “If we just stopped for a second to help the girl with the boot, to help the old lady who could reach the canned goods in the supermarket, to say, ‘Why don't you get in front of me in the line?’ ... When did we stop doing the right thing?”

Anna is known as a fighter — a title she wears with pride. But she also wishes she never had to become one.

“Who wants to live their life on a daily basis arguing and fighting,” she said. “It’s draining.”

But she also knows she will continue.

“I’ll fight for Gianna. I’ll fight for veterans,” she said. “I will always fight for acceptance on every level for everyone, but I’m fighting more for the Down syndrome community.”

On July 23, 2008, she became Gianna's mother. Eighteen years later, on Gianna's birthday, Thursday, July 23, Anna continues the work that began with her daughter's birth by helping create a community where every person feels seen, supported and included.

“I always think that I can make the change. I can change the world,” she said. “When I do it, maybe people will follow a suit.”