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Date: 9/15/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Lions Club has announced its 2021 Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award recipient is Aldo Fazio, owner of Fazio’s Ristorante & Pizzeria on Shaker Road.
Lion Scott Grabowski explained that nominations are sent out each year for an individual who has served the community. Those nominations are then vetted by a committee and recommended to the organization’s board of directors.
“One does not need to be a Lion to receive this recognition. Aldo is not a Lion member. This award has been given out since the early 1960s, annually except for a couple of breaks in the years,” Grabowski said.
Fazio said he is very “humbled and honored” by being selected. He expressed to Reminder Publishing that he didn’t see his charity work as making him a special individual. “I make pizzas for a living,” he said.
Fazio is a lifelong resident of East Longmeadow. “We were born and raised in East Longmeadow. My parents immigrated from Italy and raised five boys here,” Fazio said. He came up through the East Longmeadow Public Schools and said he tries to help the district out whenever he can.
“We have the resources,” Fazio said of his business. “The community has really supported us,” he said, particularly through the COVID-19 closure in 2020. Fazio took over the restaurant from his father in the mid-1990s.
The business owner has donated to events from the Lion’s Club and Rotary Club, sponsored local sports teams and offered programs to feed seniors and families during the pandemic. Grabowski said Fazio has raised funds for cancer research, Lyme disease treatments and donated meals and food to the East Longmeadow Police Department, East Longmeadow Fire Department and the Senior Center. He also has helped with events at St. Michael’s Church and organized golf tournaments for “families in need,” Grabowski said.
“My parents were old-school Italian. Owning a business, you should be a part of the community,” Fazio told Reminder Publishing. “It’s about giving back.”
A recognition dinner, including a social hour at 6 p.m., and dinner at 7 p.m., in Fazio’s honor is planned for Sep. 21 at Mario’s Café Ambiance, 60 Shaker Rd., East Longmeadow. The cost of the dinner is $20. Reservations and checks, payable to the East Longmeadow Lions Club, can be mailed to Lion Scott Grabowski, 25 Greenacre Ln., East Longmeadow, MA., 01028-2308 by Sept. 16.