Tri-Town’s DeSantis receives 2015 Man of the Year Award from Verrazzano Day Committee

Tri-Town and South County Community Action Agency CEO Joseph DeSantis formally received the 2015 Man of the Year Award from the Verrazzano Day Observance Committee during a banquet held in his honor at Venus de Milo in Swansea, Mass., on May 16.

Nearly 300 guests attended the 54th annual event, which also included presentations of proclamations from the town of North Providence by Mayor Charles Lombardi and from the U.S. Congress by Rep. David Cicilline, and a citation from the U.S. Senate secured by Sen. Jack Reed.

Dr. Giulio Diamante, the 2014 recipient, presented the honorary plaque to DeSantis, continuing the tradition held by the Verrazzano Committee since its first induction ceremony in 1961. The committee also announced its scholarship winner, Rhode Island College student Sarah David, and an additional award to RIC to support its foreign language programs.

“I’m truly honored and deeply humbled to be here this evening,” DeSantis said in his remarks. “No leader can realize their vision without the support of an aligned team that believes in the mission, the purpose, and the vision.”

DeSantis also spoke of his upbringing as a child of Italian-Americans, and tied his professional work to the history of Italy’s immigrants traveling to America to make a new start and provide a better opportunity for their children.

“What else, other than family, could inspire them to leave the places where their ancestors had lived for generations? What else, other than family, could lead them to pack up their belongings – sometimes just the clothes on their backs – and travel to a new and often hostile country, driven only by the belief, hard-wired into their very DNA, that they could make things better on their own terms?” asked DeSantis. “What else, other than family, could provide the kind of support system that inspired the first generation of Italian immigrants to become Italian-Americans?”

Noting that he sees Tri-Town and South County as his “extended family,” DeSantis also drew parallels to how the agencies approach their work to help low-income families.

“Tonight, I call upon all of us to re-dedicate ourselves to our family – not only our relatives, but our American brothers and sisters who arrive in our midst seeking the same support that our ancestors needed to start and build their own lives in America,” he said. “Let us, all of us, take the example of our Italian elders into our hearts and minds and hands, and make life better for others.”

Also speaking Saturday night were Tri-Town Chairman of the Board of Directors Richard DelFino Jr. and Chief Operating Officer Brenda Dowlatshahi, who offered their own reflections on Joe’s 43-tenure as CEO of the agency.

DelFino, who has been board chairman since the late 1980s, said: “Joe is a role model, someone who serves as an example of how fully an Italian-American can live the ethos of public service and empathy for our fellow man – and it all goes back to those early life experiences that Joe had coming from a close knit Italian-American family, the upbringing that helped define who he has become.”

“‘Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth,’” DelFino added, quoting boxing champion Muhammad Ali. “By that standard, Joe deserves a castle for the work he has provided over these many years.”

Dowlatshahi, who has worked with DeSantis for 37 years, reviewed DeSantis’s work and presented a video that recounted his decision to buy buildings in several communities to provide Tri-Town and South County with permanent homes.

“There’s no handbook for how to run a successful nonprofit,” Dowlatshahi explained, “but if there was going to be one, this man would be writing that book.”

Starting with a photo of an article from 1980, when he first took the reins as CEO at age 30, the video highlighted the acquisition of facilities in North Providence and Johnston, among other northern Rhode Island communities, and the work to rescue South County Community Action Agency from closure beginning in 2000.

“With every intake meeting where we help families stay warm; every phone call where we provide a caring voice to people in need; every moment where our students learn that they can achieve more, reach higher, and succeed; every chance we have to open our doors and welcome those who feel they’ve been ignored or neglected, Joe’s vision means that we can continue our mission of changing lives for this generation, and those yet to come,” the video stated.

Dowlatshahi also spoke about what comes next for the two agencies, which are expected to complete a formal merger later this year.

“When I consider what this merger represents, especially compared with all of the other accomplishments that Joe has led us through … I’d have to rank this first,” Dowlatshahi explained. “It’s a daunting task, to say the very least, and the work isn’t done yet. But just as with other examples from Joe’s past leadership of the agencies, there’s a philosophy that be brings to the merger that gives you no choice but to believe that it’s going to happen: It’s not about being big, it’s about how many people you serve, and how far your reach is, in terms of spreading your mission and your philosophy.”

In offering thanks to DeSantis on behalf of the staff and clients of the two agencies, Dowlatshahi quoted Eleanor Roosevelt: “You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do,” and added: “Thank you for seeing opportunity where others see obstacles, for making us all believe that we can look fear in the face and succeed, every time.”