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Volunteer Profile: Anthony Paccione
For Anthony (“Tony”) Paccione, volunteering at Broadway Cares is a labor of love. “No matter the grunge work,” he advises, “just enjoy it!” Tony’s association with BC/EFA began in 1995 when a friend took him to his first Gypsy of the Year event at the St. James’ Theatre. Back when, “you put your money in a bucket and scrambled for a seat.” Since joining the production team in 1997, he has earned a perfect attendance record, working on every Gypsy and Easter Bonnet since. Tony also volunteers for each winter’s Broadway Bears auction, each summer’s Broadway Bares Event and the Annual Flea Market in the fall. Ever the compassionate diplomat, Tony refuses to pick a favorite event, instead choosing to focus on the campaign at large. “I feel like I’m giving back for all the pleasurable moments I’ve had in the theatre,” he says. Village Roots Born in New York City, Tony spent his teen years upstate, in the town of Kingston. After high school, he “made a b-line for the city,” enrolled in New York University and earned a BBA in business administration. When business proved uninspiring, Tony returned to NYU for a masters in film editing and screenwriting. He also studied acting, but admits “I couldn’t memorize lines for the life of me!” Life in Greenwich Village during the 1950s and 60s was exciting and fresh. During one period, Tony even lived on Bank Street across from a woman believed to be the model for Patrick Dennis’ Auntie Mame. They never met, but shared the same grocer, an easygoing gentleman named “Irv.” It was another age when markets let customers run accounts, and while Tony and Irv’s other regulars paid off their debts, the spirited eccentric’s bills remained unpaid until the day a lawyer bought her home out from under her feet. “Irv would shrug and say, ‘I know she’ll never pay, but… it’s okay,’” Tony remembers. Years of Spirited Service Tony eventually found his professional niche (and financial security) in the publishing world, joining the staff at MacMillan as Administrative Art Director. In the mid 1980s, he left the house of MacMillan to start his own publishing concern, specializing in art direction. It was around this time – when the AIDS epidemic was first surging – that Tony began volunteering at St. Luke’s Hospital in the physically and emotionally demanding field of hospice work. Through the years, he met “all the pioneers of hospice,” including Florence Wald, who started Connecticut’s first free-standing hospice. This long-term volunteer brings the same empathy and patience to all his efforts at Broadway Cares, where we are indebted to Tony Paccione for all his years of warm, spirited service to the fundraising cause. But, true to form, the ever-modest Tony turns that observation around. “My favorite part of volunteering is the staff,” he insists. “I just love ‘em to death!” |
By Jody O’Neil