Meet a TwinBridger: Maria Sorriento
Maria with Bob Balk, President of CNY Rotary
By Richard Landers
The current President of Twin Bridges, Maria Sorriento, was born in the small town of Forchia, Italy, near Naples, and came to the United States with her Mom when she was 14 months old. Her father had already moved here--hadn’t seen his wife for many months or even met his infant daughter.
Maria became a naturalized American citizen at a young age but with life-long ties to her original country. In a quirk of Italian officialdom, she has always had two birthdays—June 9 is her actual birthday, and the one she celebrates, but her official birthday (the one on all her records) is June 17. That was the day her birth at her grandmother’s home was recorded at town hall. She later tried to have it changed but officials wouldn’t do it.
Maria’s dad had originally come to Troy but Maria grew up in Watervliet with Italian being the language spoken at home. Coming here so young allowed her now to speak English with no trace of an Italian accent but also to fluently speak one of the many Italian dialects.
Like many with roots in Italy, Maria is immersed in Italian and Italian-American culture—the food, the cooking, the Catholic traditions, the idea that family is absolutely central to life, along with the warmth, hospitality and expressive communications that the culture has nurtured. One indication of her close ties to family is that she currently babysits four days a week for two grandchildren—the children of her son who lives locally. (“Basically, a full-time job,” she says.) Her daughter and another grandchild live in Pennsylvania. Maria also helps out her Dad and, before she passed a year ago, her Mom. She has gone back to Italy twice and will soon make a third trip.
According to Maria, she grew up in an extremely strict household. She is the oldest of the kids with two younger brothers. She went to Catholic school for kindergarten and first grade followed by public schools in Watervliet.
“My parents wouldn’t let me go to college,” she explained although she did later take college courses. Two weeks after high school she took New York State employment tests and became a stenographer. This led to spending her entire career, 42 years, with the state Office of Children and Family Services, eventually moving up to the Deputy Commissioner’s office as Administrative Assistant.
Heavily involved in church activities for all of her life, Maria says, “always a volunteer in one way or another. I got that from Mom.” Maria is a volunteer with Care Links, a program of Twin Bridges member CAPTAIN Community Human Services that links volunteers to seniors. There she provided supportive services such as companionship, transportation and respite assistance. She’s currently taking a break from Care Links because Twin Bridges and grandparenting take up so much of her time.
She came to Twin Bridges five years ago after retirement from the State. “I wanted to find volunteer opportunities. I was a friend of Sandy Rubino, long time Twin Bridges member and President at that time--she was looking for volunteers for a project and I jumped on board.”
Maria became President of the club a year ago and will leave office at the end of June to be replaced by Andrea Downing. Rotary club presidents normally serve for a single year though a good number come back later to be president a second time.
The idea of service and the chance to meet new people is what keeps Maria in Twin Bridges. Cooking at Ronald McDonald House for families whose children are staying at Albany Medical Center Hospital is “dear to my heart” as it combines her passion for cooking (and, yes, most likely Italian dishes) with the idea of service.
How has being President been? “Challenging but rewarding. People, even members, don’t realize how much time you are putting into this. One challenge is getting folks to come to our routine meetings—we have two per month. I know everyone has other things to do but there’s lots of organizational work needed for our events. Somehow, we always seem to bring it off.”
The reward comes from seeing the impact of what Twin Bridges does. “The smiles of kids when we delivered beds we had built to their homes, seeing how excited they were to get the bed. Or the kids at Santa and Easter Bunny breakfasts—it is always great fun to see them.”
What’s something people don’t know about Maria? “The fact that lots of people come up to me and tell me their life story. Could be folks of any age, men and women. Must mean I seem approachable. I know I’m a good listener.”
What to say to someone considering Rotary and Twin Bridges? “It’s socially and spiritually rewarding. My hope going forward is that we can get more new people to join our club. We do a lot but could always do more. I had a ton of things on my list for this year but didn’t get to all of them.”
But don’t worry, the list still exists and Maria hasn’t given up on completing it.