Campanelli Talks About Giving Back
*Originally published in the Hanover Mariner
The DeMarco brothers will happily tell you that through three generations of family ownership, Campanelli has been proud to give back to the South Shore community that has afforded the company so much. As business owners and family men who love and work on the South Shore, Dan DeMarco and his brothers, Campanelli partners Rob and Jeff, are devoted to bettering their beloved community. “We know that a requirement of success is to acknowledge our responsibilities to others. We know we have to choose carefully, and supporting the SSYMCA is one of those careful choices,” noted Dan.
Growing up in Brockton, Dan has fond memories of watching his father, Bob, play handball every week at the Brockton Y. As an adult, Dan continued his life-long Y membership in Quincy, where he was eventually tapped for a board position by Mark Dickinson and Brian Tedeschi. “Looking back,” says Dan, “one of my proudest accomplishments is the many friendships I have made with staff and volunteers of the Y.”
Owning a real estate development firm has allowed Dan to give back to the SSYMCA in a very tangible way, providing the exact skills and leadership necessary to help the Quincy Y move out of their dated 1950s facility and into a brand-new home in 2013. “Being part of building the new Quincy facility for me personally is the most important civic experience of my life. It would not have happened without the thousands of people who donated, helped and believed in a project that really spanned more than a decade.”
The new facility has been hugely successful, creating an “urban edge” model that many Y’s around the country look to replicate. “Its design is the result of an ‘inside out’ planning process where every Y department and its staff outlined what they need to best serve our users.”
Dan, who said that, “What is really important to me is to give resources to the hundreds of people who work for the SSYMCA full and part time so they can do what I know is in their hearts- and that is to make every person who walks through a Y door or goes to a Y program a little better,” shared a powerful story that embodies this sentiment. “A gentleman came up to me who had been severely injured falling down the stairs. He was probably in his 60s and could not walk after the accident. Through his determination and with the help of the Y staff and a volunteer partner, he was using a walker to walk and attributed this miracle to the help he received from the Y volunteers.”
Testaments like this, which show the potent impact that the South Shore Y emanates through its staff, volunteers and members is a constant inspiration to Dan. “Seeing the faces from young to old stream through the front door every day means everyone involved accomplished a single goal to better our community.”