The Lido Civic Club of Washington, D.C., an Italian-American fraternal organization, found its Man of the Year in Oakton this year. Oakton resident John Salamone received the award at the club's Past Presidents' Night on Saturday, Jan. 20.
Salamone was selected because "he cares about his community, and he gives back to his community every day," said Lido spokesman Aldo Comparini.
For one thing, Salamone, who has lived in Oakton for about 15 years, is the executive director of the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), which Comparini called "the foremost Italian organization in the United States." He said a candidate's impact on the community is the main criteria by which he is selected to be Man of the Year, and he noted that Salamone also sat on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Center for Disease Control and was appointed by President Bush to the board of the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation.
Salamone said helping others is one of his favorite parts of his work at NIAF. Among other programs, he said, the foundation offers mentoring, youth retreats, congressional internships and an Italian exchange program for young Italian Americans, and also sponsors an Italian-language immersion summer camp. NIAF "is an organization I'm passionate about. That's why I put in about 80 hours a week," said Salamone. Another aspect of the job he said he enjoys is "the fact that it's never boring. There's always something to do, and you have possession of it."
"There's no greater satisfaction than creating something from nothing," he said. "It's like creating a Picasso or a Monet or, I guess we should say in our case, a Rafael." Salamone said he also tries to give his staff ownership of their work.
"HE DOES EMPOWER his directors," said Elissa Ruffino, the foundation's spokeswoman and one of only about 25 paid staffers. "John is a really dynamic, passionate individual who takes his heritage to heart," she said. Ruffino also noted Salamone's long work hours. "I get in at 7, and he's probably already done half a day's work," she said.
Salamone said his work also often keeps him far from Oakton. He returned last Thursday from Boston, where the foundation is working to expand operations, he said. This Friday, he will fly to New York to meet Alan Alda, who will be presenting a NIAF scholarship, and two days later, he will be in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a reception for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, he said.
He has worked for the organization since 1984 and was elected as its executive director six years ago. The previous director was retiring, he said, "so I had a choice of some stranger coming in from outside and becoming my boss or going ahead and being a candidate myself." Prior to taking the helm at NIAF, he was the organization's special projects director, and before that, he worked for the government.
At 19, Salamone began work for a congressman as the youngest legislative director on Capitol Hill. Later, he worked under Rudolph Giuliani at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
While the Lido Civic Club, a community service-oriented organization, seeks honorees active in their own community, "When you have an individual who can impact people's lives outside of the community where he lives, that's even more outstanding," said Comparini. Part of Salamone's national impact, he said, has come from his work regarding immunization practices.
"I have a son who contracted polio from the vaccine when he was a baby," Salamone said. After his son became ill, Salamone launched a campaign to make polio immunizations safer. "We succeeded in finally convincing them to change a 40-year-old policy," he said, noting that it has now been 10 years since there was a known case of a child contracting polio from vaccination. This success, he said, made him a sort of "super layman," named to various panels, such as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which were dominated by prominent doctors.
His son now attends high school in Rome, he said.
The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, to which Salamone was appointed by President Bush, oversees the funds raised by the sale of medallions minted in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World. The foundation supports work that is intended to produce new discoveries.
THE LIDO CIVIC CLUB, Salamone noted, not only has goals similar to NIAF's, of preserving Italian-American heritage and serving the community, but it is an affiliate of the foundation.
The club, which was founded in 1929 and claims membership of about 100, offers scholarships to Italian-American university students and donates to the homeless, the elderly, orphans and disaster victims, said Comparini. At Past Presidents' Night, he said, former leaders are honored, as well as one individual from outside the club.
Salamone noted that past honorees have included New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and boxing legend Rocky Marciano. "They're dipping a little low when they come to me, but it's pretty awesome, being in that company," he said.