Oftentimes at Becton, students are awarded the monthly Kindness Award, but who says that our staff are excluded from that category? Dr. Dario Sforza and Mr. Dominick Parillo lended an incredibly kind and necessary hand to Mrs. Anna Maria Altomonte on Friday, September 29, when it was discovered that her car had a flat tire. “Thank you Dr. Sforza and Mr. Parillo for saving my day and life,” Altomonte expresses her gratitude, “I am so grateful to work for and be a part of Becton Regional High School.” Sforza recalled his initial outlook on the situation, “I had the same reaction that I would have towards any person, especially a student or staff member, facing trouble…to move mountains to be able to assist them.”
Sforza and Parillo worked together to overcome the issue– Parillo is a formerly trained auto-mechanic, and this greatly assisted the challenge at hand. “We did have to assist each other to quickly change the tire in a seamless and secure fashion,” they recounted, giving one another credit. The two even did it without getting grease on their suits for Back-to-School night! “Mrs. Altomonte has a congenial personality,” Sforza accounts, “She was ecstatic to be surrounded by people that are willing to give a helping hand.” Altomonte was, in fact, ecstatic, sharing that the two had “relieved me of all my stress.”
Everyday acts of kindness, Sforza believes, “bring out the best in humanity.” He leaves us with righteous words, “I firmly believe in the good in each and every person and that, if provided the opportunity, most would choose to be kind and help someone in need over even themselves. But, it is equally important to be kind and love yourself just as you love others. Self love is self discipline and self discipline is sometimes doing things, for yourself and for others, that you may not want to do, but you know is the right thing to do. Once you understand this principle, you understand the core of living a kind, fulfilled, and successful life.”
Sforza is grateful to lead a school built on kindness and generosity, and he knows that “any one of our staff members would have done the same thing for each other.”
