Correspondent photo / Russell Brickey Business and community leaders cut the ribbon Thursday morning at the Centofanti Volunteer Resource Center in Boardman, which will serve as the headquarters of the United Way of Youngstown and Mahoning Valley.
BOARDMAN – After four years of effort and over $2.5 million in donations, the new United Way Centofanti Volunteer Resource Center at 8133 Market St. is officially open.
More than 100 sponsors and well-wishers gathered at the center on Thursday morning for the ceremonial opening.
The 12,000-square-foot building includes offices and a warehouse to support the United Way of Youngstown and Mahoning Valley community volunteerism.
“We will be running most of our initiatives from the new volunteer center,” said Jessica Anthony, Community Impact Manager. “This includes our Saturday of Caring feeding program, our 19 Care Closets, which are ‘resource closets’ in the schools, and also most of our education initiatives.”
Every third Saturday of the month, volunteers come together to unload, package and deliver groceries to those in need for the Saturday-Day of Caring program. The Care Closet program provides free essentials such as food, hygiene products and school supplies to needy students in Youngstown, according to the United Way website.
Funding for the center is provided in part by a $1.5 million federal grant initiated by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and a $1 million operating gift from the James and Coralie Centofanti Charitable Foundation. The center is named in honor of the Centofanti family.
More than 100 volunteers are already working on site while United Way employees settle into the new location.
Numerous speakers were on site to celebrate the ceremonial opening.
“We had a wide variety of donors from different backgrounds and from different companies,” said Bob Hannon, president of the United Way of Youngstown and Mahoning Valley.
Hannon explained that construction on the warehouse is not yet complete.
“At some point, we’ll have bocce courts and a putting green out back, Youngstown style,” he joked with the crowd.
He then explained that the center began with a food drive for families in need during the COVID-19 outbreak, when many people were in isolation. Hannon joined forces with Ed Muransky, chairman and founder of the Muransky Group, who also attended the event, to start a food drive. He emphasized that the new building should be a “community center.”
With help from community volunteers and students from Youngstown State University, United Way delivered food and other essentials to families in need during the pandemic, Hannon said. By the eighth Saturday, more than 100 families were already on the delivery list. Volunteers gathered in the Southwoods Health parking lot in all weathers to distribute donations to drivers, and the need for a dedicated facility became clear.
United Way now has more than 80 drivers delivering food and other goods to more than 460 families in the Mahoning Valley. The new building will be the center of these efforts.
“This is one of the things I’m most proud of in my 16 years at United Way,” Hannon said, “because we’re helping people who desperately need help.”
Hannon said the biggest challenge of the operation will be retaining the volunteer drivers, but he noted that the drivers develop strong personal bonds with the people they help.
“We knew we could provide food in this type of phenomenon, but it’s the social, emotional connection between volunteers and recipients that makes the difference,” Hannon said.
Other charities will also use the building. The Red Cross will hold babysitting training and blood drives there, and Hannon welcomes YSU students to do their community service at the center.
“We want the next generation of leaders,” he said.
The United Way office in downtown Youngstown will remain open, Hannon said.
Other speakers included Dennis Pascarella of The Difference Makers, a local food bank at St. Patrick Church in Hubbard. Pascarella spoke about his personal mentor and inspiration for his charitable work, the Reverend Tim O’Neill, whose motto, “The key to happiness is a life of selfless giving,” is painted on the wall of the warehouse. The warehouse will be named “The Difference Makers Warehouse” in honor of O’Neill and the charity.
Joe Centofanti thanked his father, Camillo Centofanti, who was born in 1892. The elder Centofanti traveled from Italy to Youngstown to work in the steel industry. He saved enough money to bring his family over just in time before the Great Depression, Joe Centofanti said.
Nevertheless, the family worked and saved, and over the years the Centofanti family gained wealth and prestige in the community, as can be read about the family on the YSU website.
“What are the chances that his son would be standing here today, over 130 years (after his father’s birth),” said Joe Centofanti, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in a few months.
The center is named for his brother and sister-in-law, James and Coralie Centofanti. James Centofanti of Canfield, a successful business owner, philanthropist and equestrian, was a longtime member of the board of directors of Farmers National Bank in Canfield, a generous supporter of numerous educational and community activities in and around Canfield, and the recipient of numerous awards for his humanitarian efforts. He died in 2010. His wife, Coralie, died in 1999.
YSU’s nursing school was named for the couple after the Centofanti Foundation donated $1 million to the school in 2020. In 2012, the foundation pledged $1 million to establish the James and Coralie Centofanti Center of Health and Welfare for Vulnerable Populations in YSU’s Bitonte College of Health and Human Services. And in 2017, the foundation pledged $500,000 to support the successful Centofanti Symposium, which has brought a number of nationally and internationally recognized speakers to YSU over the past eight years.
Joe Centofanti congratulated Hannon, Muransky and the other sponsors on their work.
“This will serve the hard-working but needy families in the valley for many, many years,” he said.
Other speakers included Rob Cochran, CEO of #1 Cochran, and Eric Carlson of the United Way Board of Directors.
The center is now accepting volunteers. “The best way to sign up for all of our opportunities is to go to our website,” Anthony said. “Just click the ‘Volunteer Now’ button and it will take you to all of our initiatives.”
If you would like to volunteer, you can find opportunities at https://www.unitedwaygreaternashville.org/vita-volunteers/.
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