Sal Sbranti honored as Antioch’s 2016 Citizen of the Year for Most Impact
Sal Sbranti, center with Antioch Councilwoman Monica Wilson, Mayor Pro Tem Lamar Thorpe, Mayor Sean Wright and Antioch Chamber of Commerce CEO Richard Pagano. Photo by Michael Pohl
At the annual Gala of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce, last Friday night, March 10th, Antioch resident Sal Sbranti was honored as the 2016 Citizen of the Year for Most Impact.
After thanking his “wife, mother, daughter, sister-in-law, brother and nephew” for being there, at the Gala, Sbranti said “Thank you, everyone for bestowing this great honor on me.”
“I’m up here, tonight because of Gordon Gravelle who sponsored me in the Rotary Club,” he added.
Upon retirement, Sal Sbranti joined the Rotary Club of Antioch and quickly became a leader of the largest fundraiser of the year, the annual golf tournament. As team captain with the challenge of enlisting sponsors and players due to his leadership, “Sal’s Super Stars” raised the most in donations and money.
After viewing a documentary, The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things, which documents the travels through America of a crew of women filmmakers on a mission of inspiring and empowering young women to identify and then pursue their ambitions, Sal presented the opportunity for Rotary to incorporate the documentary into a project at Antioch High School called Girl Power, which was an exercise designed to empower high school girls to aspire to realize their potential in choosing a career.
In 2014, the first two sessions were held at Deer Valley and one at Antioch High with a total attendance of more than 2,000 young women from grades nine through twelve viewing the documentary, listening to local successful panellists and answering the question, “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid to fail?” The following year, the program was expanded to the middle schools.
In 2016, the Empowerment project work continues and is expanding to the middle schools and creating a male. In addition, Sal will be presenting the program at the Rotary Conference in Berkeley this year to help other Rotary Clubs to launch the program.
Allen Payton contributed to this report.
