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WHEREAS, John Macellaro, Jr is the Recreation Director at the REAM Recreation Center located in Duquesne Heights/Mount Washington area; and,
WHEREAS, a former professional football player in Italy, John has a passion for youth and has volunteered in the community serving our youth in any way he could, but realized that the youth needed a place to come together; and,
WHEREAS, along with the community, John began fundraising in order to enter into an agreement with the city to open REAM Recreation Center; and in 2007, Mr. Macellaro joined forces with YouthPlaces, as the financial conduit, and contracted with the city for a yearly lease to use the center; and,
WHEREAS, Mr. Macellaro obtained funding from the Birmingham Foundation, Mr. Edward Dunlap and CentiMark Roofing, PNC Foundation and Council District 2 and an official reopening ribbon cutting ceremony took place on January 17, 2013; and,
WHEREAS, in conjunction with Citiparks, John soon provided recreational flag football and basketball leagues and through YouthPlaces, he has coordinated sports, arts, educational, enrichment and college and leadership programs. In addition, he partnered with Carnegie Library to bring outreach programs to the community and you will often find him mentoring and teaching respect to the youth; even using his own money to feed the participants in the program; and,
WHEREAS, in addition, for those high school graduates who were not Promise ready, but attended a junior college and became Promise ready, he wrote letters advocating on their behalf and they were granted funding and are currently enrolled in college; and,
WHEREAS, John grew up with great mentors himself. His father, John Macellaro, Sr. ran the Mt. Washington Baseball league for 20 years and often lets the community use his restaurant, Satalios, for events; and his mother Gigi, who went to school after raising her sons and recently retired as a nurse from Allegheny General Hospital; and,
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