
The Albert V. Maniscalco Community Service Award was established in 1986 in honor of the ninth borough president. Maniscalco's tenure from 1955 to 1965 saw the creation of the Greenbelt and the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The award celebrates the civic-mindedness and tireless energy of individuals or organizations that work to help community members in need and to make Staten Island a better place.
“I can think of no other organization – or individual than the Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation and Teddy Atlas who is more deserving of this honor,” said Borough President Oddo. “This award is about community service on Staten Island and the Atlas Foundation is synonymous with community service.”
In 1996, Teddy Atlas, boxing trainer and ESPN commentator, established the Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that comes to the assistance of people in need, named after his father. Dr. Theodore Atlas founded two local hospitals and was widely known in the community for his charitable work.
The Foundation operates a food pantry, gives away turkeys on Thanksgiving and toys on Christmas, runs incentive programs in schools and sponsors a basketball league. It helps thousands of individuals and families in difficult times – paying for medical insurance, purchasing medical equipment, making a home handicapped-accessible, buying a headstone, helping in any way that is appropriate in a given situation. The Foundation has given away over $3 million to help the less fortunate among us and has done so in such a way as to preserve the dignity of the people receiving help, without red tape and with a discrete check to validate a particular need.
Past winners of the Maniscalco Award are Richard E. Diamond, John L.F. Sipp, Norma D’Arrigo, Allan Weissglass, Martin Stallone, Roger E. Acker, Reverend Robert I. Gannon, Michael F. Manzulli, Michael J. Petrides, Marie G. Martino, Frank Powers, Susie Hyun Sook Beidel, Brian J. Laline, Reverend Hattie Smith-Davis, and Joseph V. Madory, Lou Caravone, Jose Joe Valentin, Nancy Passeri, retired Borough Commander Anthony Marra, Reverend Terry Troia, Senator John J. Marchi, Wendy Pellegrino, Fred Ariemma, Joanne E. Gerenser, Ph.D., Dr. S. Chitoor Govindaraj, Kathryn Krause Rooney, the Siller Family, George and Maria Esposito, and the Mannix Family.