|
Home > Documents > Newspaper Articles > Yes Virginia, There Are Still Good Samaritans Published in RPI Bulletin on January 1973.Joseph Esposito, a 15-year-old cerebral palsy victim confined to a wheelchair, had to be daily carried down a flight of stairs and the porch steps at 6:30 a.m. when his father left for work so he could catch the school bus which didn't arrive until 8.45. That was before Alpha Phi Omega stepped in. The Rensselaer chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity, has long been recognized for its contributions to the RPI community. Its members have created the used book exchange, prepared school ID cards, run student elections and punched computer cards for the library. But their services offered to groups and individuals in the surrounding community have just begun to gain recognition. One of this year's pledges, Bob Bergamini of Connecticut, initiated the project to build a ramp for the cerebral palsy victim. The ramp enables him to scale the porch steps on his own. Bergamini and other volunteers contributed two days of manual labor and over 20 hours of preparation in building a ramp so that Joseph will not have to endure two hours of the Troy winter every morning while waiting for the school bus. Three local business firms contributed supplies for the ramp which amounted to nearly $1,000. Last year, the brothers built a picnic ground for Camp Rotary which is the local Boy Scout camp. This year's public service began with a $400 donation to Unity Hous eand Refer Switchboard which are publicly sponsored organizations offering free counseling services to individuals with psychological, drug, or physical problems. And recently when a Troy family was almost forced to find a new home because the landlord refused to remove paint which had sent their three small children (who had eaten the peeling paint) to the hospital with lead poisoning, the fraternity responded by scraping off the old paint and repainting the apartment. Yes, Virginia, there are still good samaritans. |
