George Melillo Honored at NCRC Inaugural Ball

“In life you must realize before it is too late, to give back and enjoy the smiles of those you touched,” are words that the founder of the Melillo Foundation located in Oyster Bay, George Melillo is fond of saying. At the 2008 Nassau County Republican Committee Inaugural Ball, held at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury on the Friday evening of March 14, Melillo was honored with the Senator Norman J. Levy Humanitarian Award, for his work with the autistic community.
Before a crowd of influential Nassau County republicans, that included: New York State Senate Deputy Majority leader Dean Skelos (Rockville Centre), State Senator Carl Marcellino (Syosset), former US Senator Alfonse D’Amato, and former Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta; the Hon. Joseph N. Mondello, the Chairman of both the New York Republican State Committee and the Nassau County Republican Committee acknowledged that “[Melillo] has devoted his life to helping families and children touched by autism.”
The Melillo Foundation’s mission is to help children with autism, grow to become socially acceptable adults and work and live within their communities and function on a somewhat independent level. Their funding, which is through donations and the money raised through a consignment shop, helps support educational tools to improve the lifestyles and learning abilities for people with autism to live and learn and adapt to social environments and to adapt to some independence.
Mondello introduced Melillo, a Laurel Hollow resident, as “a successful businessman and real estate investor.” He then explained that how Melillo and his wife Rose founded the Melillo Foundation, which is dedicated to helping autistic adults lead fulfilling lives. “George and Rose joined the fight against autism shortly after their twin boys, Nicholas and Joseph were diagnosed as autistic. Knowing first hand the impact that autism has on tens of thousands of families, George and Rose have committed the Melillo Foundation to besides other lofty goals, to providing safe houses for autistic adults once they have reached the age of 21.”
After recalling what Melillo says about giving back, the Nassau County chairman said, “If I close my eyes I can hear the very same words emulating from Senator Norman Levy's mouth, because he lived his entire life enjoying the smiles of those he touched as well.”
Once Melillo approached the podium to accept the award he modestly confessed, “It gives me great honor tonight to receive the Norman Levy Humanitarian Award, as the founder and chairman of the Melillo Foundation. At the Foundation our goal is very easy, to help the autistic children with the direction they are heading and to help those who need it.”
He continued, “Five years ago my wife and I had a dream that today is finally becoming a reality. We asked ourselves what would happen to the children whose parents are not there to take care of them. We decided that it is important that we start a program for guidance, for safe home to help these children when they hit 21. Our dreams are now becoming a reality. A reality that we never thought would get here. Through hard work and good teamwork we are starting to reach our goal.”
In addition to thanking the Mondello and the Nassau County Republican Committee, Melillo thanked the members of the Melillo foundation, his father Carmine, who flew up from Florida to be at the ceremony, and most of all his wife Rose, for her “great support and for taking care of their sons.”
The Norman J. Levy Humanitarian Award was named after the New York State Senator who was committed to protecting the rights of people with disabilities and their families.
Also honored that night was the Honorable Joseph G. Cairo, Jr. with the President Ronald Reagan Political Leadership Award, Andrew W. Woodstock was awarded the President Theodore Roosevelt Outstanding Business Leadership and the US Secretary of Labor Peter J. Brennan Award was given to Edward J. Malloy.
The Melillo Foundation consignment shop, located at 15 W. Main Street in Oyster Bay, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 AM to 3 PM. Donations can be made to Melillo Foundation, 15 W. Main Street, Oyster Bay, New York 11771. For more information, call the Melillo Foundation at 516-624-2873 or visit www.melillofoundation.org.
-Faith Rackoff reprinted from 3/21/08 Oyster Bay Guardian