By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
Mayor Nancy R. Rossi and the West Haven Italian Heritage Committee will honor the city’s “primo italiano” at the 22nd Italian Heritage Celebration.
Westies Care founder and President Phil Liscio, who has strong ties to the city’s Italian-American community and is well known for feeding the less fortunate, will receive West Haven’s Italian-American of the Year award at noon Friday at City Hall, 355 Main St.
The award is bestowed annually on an Italian resident or couple who personifies service in the city’s close-knit Italian American community. Last year’s ceremony was postponed because of the coronavirus.
Accompanied by Italian music and guided by Rossi, members of the committee and the West Haven Italian American Civic Association will escort Liscio to the steps of City Hall for his special recognition. An Italian-flavored lunch will follow.
“With humility I am honored to be named West Haven’s Italian American of the Year and to be added to a list of such notable Westies as Francine and Mario Coppola, Aniello Cappetta and Grace Hendricks,” said Liscio, the grandson of immigrant grandparents from the town of Monteleone di Puglia in the province of Foggia, Italy.
Liscio, 65, will pay homage to his Italian lineage with scores of friends and loved ones, along with an array of dignitaries and descendants of folks from the old country clad in red, white and green.
“I was raised in a household where diversity, equality and assisting those in need crystalize the hallmark of our ancestors who created this great country through immigration,” Liscio said.
Liscio’s paternal grandparents, Fidel Liscio and the former Josephine Geraci, left their home in southeastern Italy and came to America for “a better life,” arriving on New York’s Ellis Island in September 1902 and eventually settling in New Haven.
His grandfather served in the U.S. Army in World War I and worked as an automotive painter. His grandmother was a homemaker and a restaurateur who operated Kimberly Pizza on New Haven’s Kimberly Avenue for more than 20 years.
In the intrepid spirit of Italians who charted a course for millions of immigrants who followed their crossing to America, Liscio and his grandparents are a testament to the diversity and promise of the United States.
“Phil has a long history of public service in West Haven,” Rossi said. “He has touched so many lives through his volunteer efforts.”
Liscio collects food for the pastor’s pantry at the First Congregational Church of West Haven, 1 Church St., and the pantry at the West Haven Emergency Assistance Task Force, 674 Washington Ave. The pantries provide food for residents in need.
“West Haven can always count on Phil,” Rossi said. “Even through the pandemic, when people were challenged by hunger and shortages, he was providing meals to anyone in need. It is my great pleasure to recognize Phil in this way.”
For three months starting in May 2020, Liscio and Westies Care teamed up with the city and the First Congregational, Our Lady of Victory and Vertical churches to deliver 13,000 meals to needy residents and front-line health care workers during the height of COVID-19. The meals — 20 pizzas per day on weekdays and five trays of ziti and Italian bread per day on weekends — were donated by Lorenzo’s Restaurant of West Haven.
Each week since August 2020, Liscio has delivered 15 pizzas from Lorenzo’s to veterans sheltered at New Haven’s Columbus House. The pizzas are made possible by Our Lady of Victory.
In observance of Italian American Heritage Month, West Haven recognizes the unique and vibrant culture of Americans of Italian descent and celebrates the story of generations of Italian sons and daughters who came to the U.S. seeking hope and opportunity to reach for the American dream.
At the ceremony, Rossi will present Liscio, West Haven’s top “paisano” of 2021, with an embroidered “Italian American of the Year” jacket and a mayoral citation for his civic-minded good works.
He will also receive an Italian flag from Paul M. Frosolone, the president of the Italian American Civic Association, and Roberta Daniels DeFonce, a past president of the association’s Ladies Auxiliary.
The cultural event will include remarks by mayoral Executive Assistant Louis P. Esposito Jr., the master of ceremonies, and an Italian blessing by the Rev. E. Carl Howard, the senior minister of the First Congregational Church.
Before remarks by Rossi, Liz Levy will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the Italian national anthem, “II Canto degli Italiani.”
Liscio was born in Buffalo, New York, on Feb. 2, 1956, to Leopold “Paul” Liscio and the former Geraldine “Gerry” Grover.
His father, a World War II veteran who served in the Army Corps of Engineers, joined the Panza Construction & Woodworking Co. at age 14 and worked for Sabino “Sabby” Panza maintaining rides at Savin Rock Park. His mother raised 11 children and was a skilled baker and cook.
Liscio, who mostly grew up in Milford, graduated in 1975 from Milford High School, where he was a three-sport athlete.
He attended Westchester Community College in New York and was a member of the club football team that won a national championship in 1975. The team was inducted into the college’s Hall of Fame in 2014.
Liscio, a resident of West Haven since 1991, is perhaps best known for his lifework with Westies Care Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity. The Westies Care Community Service Award, presented yearly at the Westies Care dinner and awards ceremony, recognizes young people and adults who exemplify the organization’s “core values of service, community and education.”
Liscio founded Westies Care in 2009 in memory of his son, Daniel L. Liscio. To honor his undying spirit, the Liscio family established a scholarship program and organized community outreach projects in Daniel Liscio’s name.
Westies Care’s charitable contributions have included raising money for the West Haven Breast Cancer Awareness Program, WHEAT and the Friends of Fisher House CT.
Westies Care and their sponsors have awarded more than $100,000 in scholarships to high school seniors from West Haven who have continued their education.
Liscio is a longtime member of the West Haven Rotary Club and sits on the board of directors.
His volunteerism in West Haven has included coaching girls basketball and softball and serving as PTA president of Mackrille Elementary, Bailey Middle and West Haven High schools.
Liscio is employed by Yale University as a security guard and the First Congregational Church as facilities manager. He also volunteers as the church’s community outreach chairman.
A proud ambassador of his rich Italian heritage, Liscio received the 2012 Community Service Award from the West Shore Lodge 2832 Order Sons & Daughters of Italy in America.
He is also a former recipient of the Rotary Club’s Presidents Award and the West Haven PTA Council’s Founders Day Unsung Hero award for service to Bailey School.
Liscio and his wife of 30 years, the former Janet Husmer, live on Bluff Avenue near West Shore’s Sea Bluff Beach. They have two daughters: Courtney Liscio, of Somerville, Massachusetts, and Lauren Liscio, of Brooklyn, New York.
Liscio’s name will join the 21 previous Columbus Day recipients on a plaque in City Hall.