Pittsfield Man Honored as Rotary's Paul Harris Fellow04:07PM / Monday, May 18, 2009
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Vincent Marinaro of Pittsfield was named a Paul Harris Fellow at the annual Pittsfield Rotary dinner. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Rotary Club has honored longtime community activist Vincent P. Marinaro, executive director of the Catholic Youth Center, as its most recent Paul Harris Fellow.
Named after the founder of Rotary International, Paul Harris, the honor is presented to an individual who best personifies the ideals of Rotary: to provide humanitarian service worldwide, to encourage high ethical standards and to help build goodwill and peace in the world.
The honor was presented at the club's annual dinner dance on Saturday, May 16, at the Country Club of Pittsfield.
A Pittsfield Rotarian since 1995, Marinaro has been an active participant on the Auction Committee, the GSE Committee and many other committees, including the Golf Tournament Committee, for which he can be credited with its Marinaro Rotary Award's creation and early success.
He has been a member of Rotary's board of directors for three years and served as president in 2005-2006. He also has been an adviser to the Pittsfield Interact Club for 11 years and district chairman of the Rotary Youth Leaderships Awards program for more than nine years. He also serves on the District Interact Committee and, since 2007, as an assistant district governor. He has received the Don Butler Award, the Area 1 Service Above Self Award, a Governor's Citation and, in 2005, a district certificate of merit.
Marinaro's service to the community includes membership in the Knights of Columbus, Downtown Inc., the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce and Pittsfield UNICO (of which he was president last year); serving on the Pittsfield Youth Commission and Pittsfield Diversity Coalition, and as chairman of the Diocesan Catholic Schools and Santa Fund advisory boards. He is a Eucharistic minister in Sacred Heart Parish, a senior counselor for the University of Wisconsin World Affairs Youth Seminars and the mayor's representative to the Youth Council of the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board.
The son of Angelica Marinaro and the late Frank Marinaro, he has been an elementary school teacher, a day-camp director, an assistant program coordinator, a softball coach, a soccer coach, a youth group adviser and, for the last 14 years, executive director of the Catholic Youth Center. A Pittsfield resident, he is a graduate of St. Joseph's High School and of St. Anselm College, earning a degree in biology.
Rotary President Ronald Latham and John O'Brien, master of ceremonies for the evening, presented Marinaro with the Paul Harris Fellow's commendation and the Harris medallion. A contribution of $1,000 was made to the Rotary International Foundation in Marinaro's name. |
