In the Family Tradition
As a third-generation family business owner in New Britain, Gerry Amodio knows what a successful business brings to a community – and how a thriving community can feed that success. For generations, forward-thinking business leaders have known it is their devotion of time, talent and resources that jumpstarts the cycle of dividends that makes for strong 
commerce and community.
But for the Amodios, community service isn’t just business; it’s personal, and it’s family.
It began with Gerry’s grandfather, Frank, who started what is now Amodio Worldwide Moving & Storage in 1919 with a horse and wagon on Commercial Street, and passed on to Gerry’s father Louis, and ultimately Gerry and his brother Frank, current owners of the company.
“You draw a lot from the city, and you always have to give back,” says Gerry, the company’s Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “Your name is your business; it’s good to be a good neighbor. The city needs people who are willing to step up.”
Stepping up runs in the Amodio family. Gerry, a vice chair of the Community Foundation who will assume the chair in 2008, and his wife Lisa are both Foundation Catalyst Fund members and have been active over the years as board/committee members and volunteers for a wide assortment of community organizations, including the Boys & Girls Club of New Britain, YWCA and YMCA, Junior League, United Way and many more. Lisa has a similar family background of community service.
“I remember my mom being treasurer for the YWCA, and every Thursday we’d be there. You see it, you live it; you don’t think twice about it,” says Lisa, a former YWCA board member herself whose 23-year-old daughter, Gina, now works with children in the YWCA’s daycare program. “Nobody ever sat us down and said ‘this is what you have to do, it’s your community.’”
The Amodios’ relationship with the Foundation is fundamental to their commitment to service. In addition to taking on the role of chair next year, Gerry also heads the Grants Committee and is excited about the impact the Foundation makes.
“We are being catalysts now, and it is working,” he says. “It is a personal opportunity for us to make change happen where we live and work.”
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