Red Cross Volunteer Deployed To His Hometown

Joseph Apicelli has been working in disaster relief kitchens all over the country since Hurricane Katrina and never in a million years did he expect to be directing an American Red Cross relief kitchen in his hometown. 

"This is the first deployment I've been on where I could go home and sleep in my own bed," he said from his station at the Groton Senior Center. "I want to take care of my people." 

The St. Bernard graduate grew up in Groton and went to Sacred Heart school. Apicelli said he started working in a restaurants 25 years ago when he moved to  San Francisco after high school and began tending bar at  Liverpool Lil's under the Golden Gate Bridge. 

"I didn't even know how to make coffee," he said of his beginnings. 

Apicelli said from there, he was always worked in kitchens. He said he learned how to make food for lots of people while helping out at pasta dinners at church and whenever people needed help cooking. When he moved back to Groton, Apicelli worked at Sneeker's Cafe on Poquonnock Road and then the Newport Club International, an exclusive high stakes gambling club at Foxwoods with a gourmet buffet and top shelf drinks.  

Apicelli said his energy is what has brought him so far. 

"People single me out," he said of his frenetic and gregarious personality. "I'm blessed to be able to use that energy to lead people. I never ask someone to do something I won't do." 

"He gets to know his people," said Frank Lionelli, a Red Cross shelter manger who volunteered with Apicelli at the Senior Center. "He is all over the place, he goes non-stop." 

Apicelli is the kitchen manager at the Respite Center set up by American Red Cross after Hurricane Irene, which was downgraded to a tropical storm, hit Groton and caused widespread power outages throughout the town. Apicelli has also been deployed to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, to California to help during the wildfires, and to Iowa and Oregon while areas were flooded. 

"If I can be a bridge at least to get them fed and go on to do things I can't even imagine," he said of his purpose. "I am definitely blessed and honored to be in this position." 

"He is what you look for in a Red Cross volunteer," said Deputy Director of Emergency Management Jeffrey Williams. "He's very dedicated and he cooks a mean meal."