By Anne W. Semmes
Every year since 2016 the Greenwich Sentinel Foundation has honored a Greenwich individual who most exhibits the spirit of community building with the Greenwich Sentinel Award. This year of 2023, the honor goes to Frank J. Gaudio, eight-year President and CEO of the First Bank of Greenwich that has grown to include locations in Stamford and Port Chester.
And last year his First Bank received the Best Community Bank Sentinel Award.
Perhaps our First Selectman Fred Camillo can best attest to Frank Gaudio’s community building spirit: “Frank is a community person. He represents the bank all over the place. He’s full of energy. He’s been that way ever since I’ve met him many years ago. And he’s one of those people who makes you smile when you see him.”
Frank Gaudio has in his 12 years with First Bank of Greenwich indeed become a welcoming beacon to both banking and non-banking customers in his embrace of his Greenwich community. That embrace was exemplified during Covid with his bank providing hundreds of PPP loans to both his bank customers and to non-banking customers.
“Frank Gaudio is a truly exceptional individual,” says Sentinel Publisher Beth Barhydt. “Frank possesses that rare quality that allows him to improve the world around him as effortlessly as taking a breath. When you express your gratitude to Frank, he responds not just with a warm “You’re welcome,” but by highlighting the strengths and virtues that make you great.”
“We specifically wanted to celebrate an individual,” continues Barhydt, “with the following criteria: it had to be somebody who had not previously been celebrated or previously received a big award of any kind. We wanted a recognition award event with The Sentinel Foundation, and a community event that celebrated Greenwich.”
“Traditionally, Police Chief Jim Heavey presents the Award,” notes Barhydt. “Chief Heavey was our first Award recipient, so he has been wonderful to continue to present the Award every year.” Heavey in his 12 years of service as Chief of Police in Greenwich is well known for instilling in the community a sense of the greater good.
Chief Heavey had indeed inspired the Sentinel Award says Barhydt. “Jim Heavey was our very first subscriber. When we started the paper and called to ask for his opinion and advice, he was very willing to talk with us and tell us what he thought.”
“The recipient must share the mission of the Greenwich Sentinel to lift up and bring together our community,” notes Barhydt, “to identify and strengthen that which makes us stronger, and to help others when possible. The person must be someone who demonstrates leadership through their actions as well as those they inspire in others.”
Past recipients include after Chief of Police Jim Heavey (2016), former rector of Christ Church Rev. Jim Lemler (2017), Susan Wohlforth (2018), James McArdle (2019), Pamela Pagnani (2020), Stephanie Dunn Ashley (2021), and Bob Capazzo (2022).
“When we think of a Sentinel,” says Barhydt, “we think of that person standing watch, protecting our community. Under Chief Heavey’s watch, Greenwich was recognized in 2014 as one of the four safest cities to live in in this country. “We have a positive relationship with our Greenwich community,” Heavey had shared. “We do intelligence-led community policing. We leverage technology to put officers in the right place in the right time. There is a lot of community planning.”
“Jim Heavey,” notes Barhydt, “was the example that we wanted to put forward of a Sentinel awardee, someone who watches over Greenwich, somebody who is involved in the community, someone that we can celebrate. He had a Boy Scout Troop he took on a trip to Arizona. He’s done overnight camping trips with the kids. He met all the criteria.”
In 2017, Sentinel Rev’d Jim Lemler had brought two major strengths to Christ Church in his ministry at a time when church attendance was declining, his gifts for hospitality and for partnering. But in his 10-year ministry his attendance grew by 50 percent. “There are ways of invitation and ways of the experience from people that come to a church that help that church to grow,” he had shared. “It’s God that gives the growth, but a congregation can focus its life and attention in to work on that and be a partner with God to make growth happen.”
In 2018, Greenwich Sentinel Susan Wohlforth was celebrated for her “unassuming, loyal, and stalwart leadership, and her sustained commitment to family, friends and community.” The key to her outstanding work with numerous nonprofits she told: “You know what I’m really good at, being a cheerleader. I’m the person that people ask to ask someone to do something. And I usually get them to do it.” What’s key is, “I believe in what I’m asking them to do, and I believe in them.”
“A Sentinel can take many forms,” notes Barhydt, and “James McArdle (2019) is one of the hardest working people we know setting an example for his team at McArdles’s Florist and Garden Center, a fourth-generation family-owned business. His willingness to talk with and mentor other business owners is both generous and valuable, he is passionate about supporting and improving our community through his support of charities and his church and through this advocacy for our environment. Our very popular email, 5 Things to Do in Greenwich Today, was his idea.”
“Pam Pagnani embodies what we believe Greenwich is all about,” says Barhydt referring to the 2020 Sentinel honoree. “She celebrates other people’s victories with as much enthusiasm as her own. She almost never says no when someone asks her for help. Pam is very hands-on whether it’s her work with Greenwich Academy, or her work with the Greenwich Riding and Trails Association or her work with her church, or Neighbor to Neighbor. It’s a lifelong pursuit for her. This is something she has been doing since she was a teenager. It isn’t just the work that she does for charities and non-profits, she carries forward the idea that we take care of our neighbors, that we care for each other in ways that are very personal. That we support people when they’re down.”
Stephanie Dunn Ashley came to her 2021 Sentinel Award as if groomed for it. A thread runs through her life that resonates with the desire to give back. With such an impulse she was perfectly placed as CEO of the Greenwich based Metro New York North Chapter (MNYN) of the Red Cross. But it wasn’t easy for Ashley to step into that role in the full force of Covid in the spring of 2020. “Instead of being able to meet her new management team, staff, 38 board members, and work in her new office,” says Giovanna Miller, board chair of the MNYN Red Cross Chapter, “she was forced to start her Red Cross career at home, online, and rarely having the personal touch of starting a new job. She not only took on all the responsibilities as if she were a seasoned CEO, but also made quite an impression on all the Red Cross staff and volunteers in the region and even nationally.”
2022 Sentinel Awardee Bob Capazzo is the much-loved chronicler of the citizens of Greenwich with his Canon camera. It was not enough for Capazzo to be assigned almost on a daily basis to photograph dozens of individuals at dozens of events. He wanted also to be able to choose his own special subjects. So, he would do so with his signature guitar. So, there for instance beside that capture of a favorite friend, the late Malcom Pray, was Capazzo’s beloved guitar, prominently displayed. Capazzo’s sense of humor, much appreciated by those who know him, would carry him through a life filled with personal wrenches. But somehow, he always landed on his feet, and found love, and respect, and admiration in all the paths he chose.
But now it is 2023 and the year to celebrate the many gifts Frank Gaudio has brought to our Greenwich community. “It’s almost impossible to quantify the magnitude of his positive impact on this community,” says Barhydt, “but safe to assume that it is a testament to the power of his compassion and empathy when acted upon without reservation. We look forward to sharing Frank’s compelling story and to celebrating his contributions and his charisma at our June Sentinel Award Presentation event.”
