PITTSTON — The 2018 Greater Pittston Person of the Year awards ceremony celebration is in the books, Anthony Marranca is still floating on air and he may not come down for weeks to come.
“It was like looking at a room of my best friends,” Marranca, 49, said at the conclusion of the Person of the Year ceremony Tuesday evening at the Gramercy Restaurant. “It was an unexpected amazing honor and we can’t wait to get at it again.”
To say Marranca is grateful for being chosen Person of the Year would be an understatement. When he came up with an idea that would help the West Pittston Salvation Army’s toy drive for Christmas of 2018, it changed his life, as well.
After getting a tip from his good friend and neighbor Reba Emil, a Salvation Army soldier and volunteer in West Pittston, something inside told Marranca he had to help — and help he did.
Along with his close friends, Marranca created the Pittston Santa Squad after collecting toys at the annual Turkey Bowl football game they play every Thanksgiving.
“Tony Marranca loves to play football and, from what I’ve been told, he loves to laugh, too. But Tony can be serious, especially when it comes to kids,” said Dotty Martin, community news editor of the Times Leader Media Group, when introducing Marranca. “When Tony heard the West Pittston Salvation Army’s Christmas Toy Drive was in trouble, he jumped into action, rounded up his football-playing buddies and saved Christmas for so many kids.”
In just a few short weeks, the gang gathered and, along with assistance from the Pittston Area girls basketball team, delivered three truckloads of nearly 450 toys and 40 articles of clothing to the West Pittston Salvation Army under the direction of Lts. Gavin and Holly Yeatts.
It was a display of the true meaning of Christmas and, on the day of delivery, Anthony Marranca knew what it felt like to be Santa Claus.
“The toy drive was about helping each other,” Marranca stated. “It was always friends helping neighbors helping friends and neighbors. We didn’t need to know names or the color of their skin or their political affiliation. If our friends needed help, we were too happy to do our part.”
Marranca vows not to stop and said the Pittston Santa Squad will work hard to match or surpass last year’s numbers.
During Marranca’s acceptance speech, he thanked many who have been in his life since childhood, including family, neighbors, friends, his mother Mary, who was in attendance Tuesday evening, and his late father Anthony.
“I want to thank my mom who instilled in me the value of giving back,” Marranca said. “(She is) the most selfless person I know. She would give her last dollar or meal to someone in need. She is my hero in this world and everything good I am is because of her.”
At that moment of the speech, a proud Mary Marranca stood to a room full of applause.
Even though Marranca’s father has been deceased for 20 years, he did not forget to mention him.
“No doubt he would be proud of me,” Marranca said. “My dad was afflicted with polio but never let his disability slow him down. As my Little League coach, he taught me teamwork and, as a father, he taught me to push on and fight through adversity.”
He also thanked his brother Joe and talked about their sibling rivalry saying, “Joe, I’m the Person of the Year, so now the ball is in your court.”
In addition to committing to the toy drive, the Pittston Santa Squad is in the process of reviving the Coats for Kids drive created by the late Joe Tavaglione 30 years ago and was a success for many years.
The Joseph F. Saporito Lifetime of Service Award
The second award of the evening was the Joseph F. Saporito Sr. Lifetime of Service Award, an award marking the life of the late attorney and former mayor of Pittston City, honoring his lifetime of service and achievements.
When speaking about Atty. Saporito, Martin referred to an article that ran in a 2009 edition of the Sunday Dispatch.
“In that article, Joe Saporito, Jr. said of his father, ‘My father was very modest. He always said, ‘Don’t tell anyone what you have accomplished. What you have accomplished will speak louder than your words.’
“Those are the words of a true public servant,” Martin said.
Saporito, Jr., along with his brother Carlo and his son Joseph F. Saporito III, was on hand to make the presentation of the Lifetime of Service Award.
The 2018 recipient is Dr. Eugene DeMinico, a Pittston chiropractor whose roots in the Greater Pittston community are similar to those of Marranca, as the two grew up near each other.
“It’s been fun and I really haven’t done anything special,” DeMinico, 67, said upon receiving the award. “I just love Pittston, the people, the community – it’s given to me more than I’ve given to it.”
DeMinico was recognized for the foundation work he and his wife Debbie have done in the name of their late son Eugene II, who was a patrolman for Pittston Twp. at the time of his death in 2005.
What started as a basketball game between Pittston Area and the now-defunct Seton Catholic that raised a few hundred dollars is now played between Pittston Area and Wyoming Area. In his acceptance speech, DeMinico offered credit to former basketball coach Joe Long for getting the program started.
“A program that started out with raising $150 at a door in a tin can, the game now raises between $4,000 and $5,000 a year which we donate to the Pittston Twp. and Pittston City K-9 Units Police and I’m very proud of that,” DeMinico said. “It all has to do with the city of Pittston and has nothing to do with me.”
In addition to thanking Long, DeMinico thanked his mentor Dr. Gary Lattimer, of Carbondale, for changing his entire perspective on the chiropractic field, along with his family and friends.
DeMinico got emotional when he talked about the late Joseph Lombardo, M.D., speaking of when the two were team doctors for the Pittston Area football program.
He recalled the first time Dr. Lombardo broke the ice as a colleague.
“We had an injured athlete,” DeMinico said, remembering what Dr. Lombardo said to him at the time. “He said, ‘Dr. Gene, we have an injured athlete, what do you think?’ I went over to examine the athlete and I told him what I thought and he said, ‘You’re right.’ From that moment on for almost 15 years, Dr. Lombardo and I stood side-by-side for every Pittston Area home and away game. He was a man that I love and deeply miss.”
DeMinico closed his speech by mentioning his wife Debbie, the mother of their three children.
“I cannot end this speech without mentioning a very special person, my wife Debbie,” he said. “She never is in the spotlight, but she is the strength, and many times, the wisdom that keeps things afloat.”
DeMinico admitted Debbie has been his right hand in raising their three children, saying, “A car with a beautiful exterior is nothing if there isn’t a fine tuned engine under the hood.
“She is a mistake finder and fixer, and there is no one in the world who do could her job any better,” he continued. “I enjoy the fun part, but she is in the trenches every day, making sure our office functions efficiently.”
“The good work of these two men does not end tonight,” Martin said in closing the program. “Tony’s Santa Squad will be at it again this year, making Christmas special for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have a Christmas. And Dr. DeMinico’s basketball game will be held again, benefiting the K9 units of both the Pittston City and Pittston Township Police Departments. We have honored two extraordinary gentlemen this evening.”
