The MLK Celebration Committee was happy to award Randy Perillo the 2019 MLK Community Service Award at the January 21 program at the Boys & Girls Club. The award was presented by Dr. Cheryl Sanders, founder of the annual MLK programs in Stoneham. A corresponding award was presented by Shelly MacNeill, chair of the Select Board. Here is a brief biography of a person who has given so much to Stoneham.
Family and Town. These two words are the focus points of Randy Perillo’s remarkable contributions to making Stoneham a better place. Although he will tell you that he is just an ordinary citizen, his work and caring for others in our town have been extraordinary.
Whether he has coached soccer, emceed a fundraising auction, been president of a school PTO, advocated for music in the schools, reported news and sports, interviewed candidates on Stoneham TV, filmed a “15 Minutes” segment on a community projects, started a citizen-forum website or a new business, Randy has been on the cutting edge of what is best about our town.
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His devotion to his family led him to focus on education and community development. Simply put, he and Michele wanted the best for their daughters, one who is now a junior at the high school, and the other a freshman at the University of Michigan. They did this by engaging in programs and projects that improved the quality of life.
In 2007 Randy and his family attended the MLK Celebration, held then in the community room in Town Hall. Afterwards, he talked with Dr. Cheryl Sanders and offered to help. The next year he was the emcee of the annual celebration, which he would continue for the next ten years. “It was a great honor for me.”
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Each year the program grew. Needing more space, it moved to its current home at the Boys & Girls Club. Speakers, musicians, dancers, recitations, singing—and always, baked goods and refreshments afterwards so people could get to know each other. Thanks to Randy’s business ties, he would find sponsors to help offset the costs.
“It was very personal to me,” Randy says, and you could sense his passion as he read Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream,” speech or segment of his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
This summer, as the MLK Committee started planning for today, Randy let us know that after ten years of leadership in MLK Celebrations, he would be stepping down, and stepping up to new challenges in the community to come.
This gave us the opportunity to do what we had long wanted to do—to select Randy Perillo as the recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Community Service Award for 2019.
