The Women’s Christian Association of Little Falls will honor six women who work to improve the quality of life in the community.
Diane Aulisi, Heidi Camardello, Angela Harris, Rose Noble, Sophia Sokol and Giorgina Talarico will be recognized for their accomplishments and achievements during the fifth annual Women of Distinction breakfast on Wednesday, May 27, at the Knights Inn, Little Falls.
Diane Aulisi
Diane Aulisi, owner of the Little Falls Curves for almost four years, is being honored in the business and industry category.
Aulisi specializes in the wide range of programs and services that Curves, a fitness center designed especially for women, offers, including weight management classes, aerobic exercise and strength training. Aluisi’s expertise allows her to assist in giving women of the community, regardless of their age, size or fitness level, an opportunity at fitness and weight loss in a fun, fast and safe environment.
In addition to being described by her nominators as someone who inspires women at her fitness center to “become a healthier you,” Aulisi also gives back to the community by encouraging Curves members to help support various charitable organizations and causes. Aulisi and her members regularly collect food for the Little Falls Food Pantry, school supplies for local schools and make monetary donations to St. Jude Research Hospital, breast cancer awareness efforts and the MDA’s Helping Jerry’s Kids effort.
Aulisi graduated from SUNY Brockport with a teaching degree and has been substituting in the Little Falls City School District for the past 20 years. Prior to owning the Curves franchise, she spent 10 years as an accountant, secretary and clerk for her father’s business, the Valley Waste Company. She also served as financial secretary for Holy Spirit Polish National Catholic Church for five years.
Aulisi has recently gone back to school and received her Cooper Institute Certificate for successfully completing Curves Club Camp and earning academic credits in the fields of kinesiology and nutrition.
She has lived most of her life in Little Falls and is married to Frederic Aulisi. They have two children, a son Jeffrey and wife Kiera, and a daughter Jennifer, who helps run Curves when she is home from college. They also have two grandchildren, Madisyn, 3, and Nicholas, seven months old.
Heidi Camardello
Heidi Camardello, honoree in the health care category, has served as the nurse manager of surgical services at Little Falls Hospital since 1999. As manager, she is fair, patient oriented and a team player. Her professional judgment has helped to maintain the highest standards of care at the hospital.
A graduate of Crouse Irving School of Nursing, she was first employed by St. Luke’s Healthcare in Utica. She married Sam Camardello in 1979 and they have four children. While her children were young, she worked part-time in the maternity department at Little Falls Hospital. In 1983, she transferred to the operating room as a circulating nurse and 1992 she was promoted to nurse manager of the operating room. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Utica College in 2007, the same year she was promoted to director of perioperative, imaging and cardiac services at the hospital.
Camardello is a member of the Mohawk Valley Chapter of AORN (Association of Operating Room Nurses) and received certification in operating room nursing in 2008.
A 1975 graduate of Dolgeville Central School, she is applying to SUNYIT to earn her master’s in nursing administration.
Angela Harris
Angela Harris is being recognized in the category of education. Harris is the founding director of the English as a Second Language program at Herkimer County Community College. She began her work in this position in 1997, when the college began actively recruiting international students. Since then 550 non-active speakers of English have taken classes through the program she has developed.
Before coming to Little Falls, Harris, who grew up in the Midwest, was a full-time faculty member at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, Portland Community College-Rock Creek in Portland, Ore., and Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Ore., serving as a developmental reading and writing specialist and English department chairperson. She served on the board of the Midwest Regional Conference on English in the Two-Year College and has presented at college English conferences throughout the country.
Harris has published professionally, including two writing textbooks and a test bank for a developmental writing text. With her husband, Dick Friedrich, she has edited and published cookbooks, regional histories and collections of poetry.
A step mother of four and grandmother of five, Harris, having grown up in St. Louis and having lived Portland, Ore., and Ocean Park, Wash., believes that she has found a home in Little Falls.
A Little Falls resident for 14 years, she has been active in the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts as a board member, board officer and board president. She is currently president of the Board of the Greater Little Falls Community Chest.
Rose Noble
Rose Noble, an active volunteer at Emmanuel Episcopal Church for the past 50 years, is the honoree in the religion category.
Noble has touched the entire spiritual, official, financial and culinary aspects of her church, and has been elected to the highest lay positions in the local Episcopal church. She is credited for the success of Emmanuel’s ladies society, Our Lady of Walsingham, holding the offices of president, secretary and treasurer a number of times. The purpose of the society is to raise funds necessary for the success of church projects.
“I have truly enjoyed serving my church and the community. Twenty-five plus years of running the thrift shop, serving on the altar guild, participating on fundraisers, compiling a cookbook, baking for bake sales and helping at the suppers have provided me with the greatest of pleasures and wonderful companionship,” said Noble. “How could all of that fun be considered a chore?”
Noble, who moved from Middle Grove to Little Falls in 1945 after marrying James L. Noble, recently relocated to Western New York to be closer to her daughter Barbara and her family. She has three children, six grandchildren and soon to be nine great-grandchildren.
“A few weeks ago after Sunday service, I was approached by a young woman and asked for hints in making the Simnel cake that I made each year. I passed on some of the tips that I have learned over the years while making this recipe. My hope is that she will be making this recipe for not only her family, but the Emmanuel Church family for years to come,” said Noble. “I will greatly miss all the wonderful people in Little Falls.”
Sophia Sokol
Sophia Sokol is the honoree in the volunteer category. Sokol has served as a volunteer for the American Red Cross since 1977, serving as the Little Falls blood drive day chair for the past 20 years. In 2008, she was the recipient of the American Red Cross Great Heroes award.
She has given countless hours to Little Falls Hospital, volunteering in the coffee shop, the administrative office and the financial office. She is a member of the hospital guild, chairing the holiday bazaar for 13 years, and presently holds the office of vice president.
Sokol is also the legislative chairperson for the Little Falls AARP and a monthly telephone caller for the Herkimer Christian Women’s Club. In addition, she has volunteered at the Little Falls Community Co-op since 1975, has given over 7,000 volunteer hours with the Catholic Charities of Herkimer County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program and has served as a town of Manheim election inspector for more than 30 years.
Married to Emil Sokol for 67 years, until has passing in November 2008, she has three children and one grandson.
Giorgina Talarico
Giorgina Talarico, a teacher of watercolor and pastel painting at the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts, is being recognized in the category of music and arts. Besides her artistic accomplishments, Talarico is known as a dedicated teacher who gives freely of her time and talent to students. Her generosity and commitment to teaching is such that, along with donating paintings created during classroom demonstrations to her students, she always makes herself available outside the classroom for further help. She also gives back to the community, in that a portion of the proceeds from many of her paintings displayed at the arts center go to support the center.
Born in Bologna, Italy, Talarico earned her degree in art education at Institute Artistico of Bologna. While living in Bologna, she participated in several group exhibits and worked as a fashion designer for two years before being employed in an architectural firm as an interior designer. One of her assignments was to illustrate children’s stories on the walls of the pediatric department at the Bologna Rizzoli Orthopedic Hospital.
In 1961, Talarico left Italy for the United States where she raised her family and became a medical secretary. She never abandoned her dream to become a full-time artist and after retiring she studied with local artists and teachers such as Ralph Murray, Guy Corriero and Robert Willman. She also studied with nationally and internationally known artists such as Tony Couch, Charles Reid and Skip Lawrence.
Talarico has received numerous awards for her work, including the Outstanding Portrait Award at the Fourth National Pastel Exhibit in Old Forge in 2008 as well as the 2007 Judge’s Choice Award at the Third National Pastel Exhibit in Old Forge.
Tickets for the 8 to 9:30 a.m. event are $10 and may be purchased from members of the WCA board or at the WCA on Garden Street.
No tickets will be sold at the door.