Among the 10 high school seniors who will receive scholarships are, from left, Nick Serra with his mother Paula (a member at St. Luke’s/Cornwall Hospital), Jessica Vermooy with her mother Debbie and father Tom (who works with Ciccone Construction), Katelyn Amaral with her mother Amy and father George (who works at Sullivan County Community College), and Matthew Mitchell with his mother Barbara (his father Kevin works in our Construction Division). They are joined by Local 445 leaders Adrian Huff and Barry Russell, center. They are also joined by Local 445 employee Susan Joiner, wife of the late former Business Agent John Joiner, in whose memory significant donations were made to the scholarship fund.
Local 445 Scholarships Awarded
Ten lucky children and grandchildren of Teamsters Local 445 members received scholarships to attend college this past summer from our Union’s Scholarship Fund, named in memory of our late leader Douglas L. McCauley.
The winners include Curtis Mead, grandson of the late former union Vice President Kenneth McCauley and grandnephew of Brother Douglas McCauley. Also included are Jessica Vernooy, daughter of Ciccone Construction Teamster Thomas Vernooy, Katelyn Amaral, daughter of Sullivan County Community College Teamster George Amaral, Timothy Martin Jr., grandson of Deborah Ackerly and stepson of Tonya Martin, both of whom work at the Sullivan County Government Center.
Also included in the scholarship awards are Nicholas Serra, son of St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital Teamster Paula Serra, Kacie DeMaio, granddaughter of retired Freight Teamster Neil DeMaio, Katherine Fraine, daughter of St.Luke’s Cornwall Hospital Teamster Diane Fraine, Matthew Mitchell, son of Construction Division Teamster Kevin Mitchell, Edward Amato III, son of Eastern Concrete Teamster Edward Amato, and Martin Callinan, son of St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital Teamster Linda Callinan.
The students had to compete for the scholarships by writing an essay entitled “How a Union Contract Has Helped My Family.” They wrote, often in simple eloquence, of the benefits and protections our Union has offered their families for many years.
For example, Kacie DeMaio wrote of a family gathering where one of her cousins made a disparaging remark about Unions. After an uncomfortable silence, her Teamster grandfather said quietly but firmly: “Everything you have here is a result of our union membership.”
Katherine Fraine wrote that Unions have helped her “not only through benefits, but in showing me to be a strong person and stand up for what I believe.”
Kevin Mitchell wrote that without the higher pay and benefits his father received, “neither my sister nor I would have been able to attend college.”
Edward Amato told of his father and grandfather both working in our Union’s Construction Division, and given not only by better pay and benefits, “but most of all the opportunity to start a family and take care of all our family members.”
Martin Callinan wrote that his mother is “able to earn a healthy and steadily increasing income” because of her union contract.
Curtis Mead wrote of his family’s deep union roots. “As I look around my home, most everything here has arrived, in some way or another, through the efforts of a Union contract.”
Jessica Vernooy wrote of the “sense of security” her family enjoys because of the contract that protects them.
Timothy Martin wrote that his parents “have the ability to plan ahead, knowing exactly what they have coming to them every year.”
Nicholas Serra wrote that his mother, a single mom, “has always dreamed of going to Egypt, and with the pay raises that the Union was able to win for the nurses at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, she was finally able to go, taking me with her.”
Katelyn Amaral wrote that the better pay and benefits offered by her father’s Union contract “allows us to put every penny of spare change toward my education, getting me one step closer to my dreams.”
