Correspondent photo / Russell Brickey Business and community leaders cut the ribbon Thursday morning on the Centofanti Volunteer Resource Center in Boardman, which will serve as the headquarters of the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

BOARDMAN — After four years of effort and more than $2.5 million in donations, the new United Way Centofanti Volunteer Resource Center at 8133 Market St. is officially open.

More than 100 sponsors and well-wishers gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the center Thursday morning.

The 12,000-square-foot building includes offices and a warehouse to support United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley’s volunteer work in the community.

“We will be running most of our initiatives out of the new volunteer center,” Jessica Anthony, community impact manager, said. “Those include our Satur-Day of Caring food program, our 19 Care Closets which are ‘resource closets’ within the schools and most of our education initiatives as well.”

Volunteers meet every third Saturday of the month to unload, pack, and deliver food to the needy for the Satur-Day of Caring program. The Care Closet program provides essentials such as food, hygiene products and school supplies free to Youngstown students in need, according to the United Way website.

Funding for the center comes in part from a $1.5 million federal earmark spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and a $1 million operating gift from the James and Coralie Centofanti Charitable Foundation. The center is named in honor of the Centofanti family.

Already, the center has seen more than 100 volunteers work on site as United Way staff were settling in at the new location.

A number of speakers were on hand to celebrate the ribbon cutting.

“We’ve had a vast array of donors from different backgrounds and different companies,” said Bob Hannon, president of the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

Hannon explained that construction on the warehouse was not quite done.

“In the back, eventually, in Youngstown fashion, we’ll have bocce courts and a putting green,” he joked with the crowd.

He then explained that the center began with a food drive for needy families during the COVID-19 outbreak when many people were isolated. Hannon joined forces with Ed Muransky, chairman and founder of the Muransky Group, who also attended the event, to launch a food drive. He emphasized that the new building should be a “community center.”

With the help of community volunteers and students from Youngstown State University, the United Way delivered food and other essentials to needy families during the pandemic, Hannon said. By their eighth Saturday, they had more than 100 families on the delivery list. Volunteers gathered in all weather at the Southwoods Health parking lot to parcel out donations to drivers, and the need for a dedicated facility became apparent.

Now the United Way has more than 80 drivers who deliver food and goods to more than 460 families in the Mahoning Valley. The new building will be the center for this effort.

“It’s been one of the things in my 16 years with United Way that we are most proud of,” Hannon said, “because we are serving people that there’s a great need (to help).”

Hannon said he thought the most challenging part of the operation would be the retention of volunteer drivers. What he found, however, is that drivers developed strong personal bonds with the people they were helping.

“In what’s sort of been a phenomenon with this, we knew we could provide food, but it is the social, emotional connection between volunteers and recipients that makes a difference,” Hannon said.

Other charitable organizations will use the building as well. The Red Cross will conduct babysitter training and blood drives, and Hannon welcomes YSU honors students to complete their community service requirements at the center.

“We want the next generation of leaders,” he said.

The United Way office in downtown Youngstown will remain open, Hannon said.

Other speakers included Dennis Pascarella for The Difference Makers, a local food pantry based at St. Patrick Church in Hubbard. Pascarella spoke of his personal mentor and the inspiration for his charitable work, the Rev. Tim O’Neill, whose motto “The key to happiness is a life of unselfish giving” is painted on the wall of the warehouse. The warehouse will be called “The Difference Makers Warehouse” in honor of O’Neill and the charity.

Joe Centofanti thanked his father, Camillo Centofanti, who was born in 1892. The elder Centofanti traveled from Italy to Youngstown to work in the steel industry. He saved up enough money to bring his family over just in time for the Great Depression, Joe Centofanti said.

Nevertheless, the family worked and saved, and over the years the Centofanti family rose to a position of prosperity and prominence in the community, according to the YSU web page on the family.

“What are the odds that over 130 years (after his father was born),” Joe Centofanti, who is a couple of months shy of turning 90, said, “that his son would be standing up here today.”

The center is named for his brother and sister-in-law, James and Coralie Centofanti. James Centofanti of Canfield, a successful business owner, philanthropist and horseman, was a longtime member of the Board of Directors of Farmers National Bank in Canfield, a generous supporter of numerous educational and community-based activities in and around the Canfield area, and the recipient of numerous awards for his humanitarian efforts. He died in 2010. His wife, Coralie, died in 1999.

The nursing school at YSU was named for the couple after the Centofanti Foundation donated $1 million to the school in 2020. In 2012, the foundation pledged $1 million to establish the James and Coralie Centofanti Center of Health and Welfare for Vulnerable Populations in YSU’s Bitonte College of Health and Human Services. And in 2017, the foundation pledged $500,000 to help support the successful Centofanti Symposium, which has brought an array of nationally- and internationally-recognized speakers to YSU over the past eight years.

Joe Centofanti congratulated Hannon, Muransky and the other sponsors for their work.

“This will serve the hardworking but needy families in the Valley for many, many years,” he said.

Other speakers included Rob Cochran, CEO at #1 Cochran, and Eric Carlson from the United Way board.

The center is now accepting volunteers. “Best way to sign up for any of our opportunities is at our website,” Anthony said. “Just press the ‘Volunteer Now’ button and you will get to all of our initiatives.”

People interested in volunteering can find opportunities at https://www.unitedwaygreaternashville.org/vita-volunteers/.

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