100-Year Assoc. Award Recipients 17 Honored As City’s Best

100-Year Assoc. Award Recipients

17 Honored As City's Best

For Det. Cheryl Melchionna, helping two abused elderly sisters in Brooklyn took some coaxing, a few spare towels, and sheets.

RAYMOND W. KELLY: Pays tribute to honorees. The women had been living for years with their nephew, who forced them to use their meager savings to pay for his drug habit. As his addiction intensified and the money ran out, he began waking them in middle of the night, making them panhandle for cash. He beat them when they refused or didn't bring back enough money.

But the sisters were reluctant to report his abuse and drug problem to the authorities, having cared and provided for him for years. In February 2003, Detective Melchionna decided to intervene after visiting the sisters' desolate apartment in Brighton Beach in response to a domestic abuse call.

Isolation Worked

She separated the two sisters, figuring that it would make it easier for them to open up. That tactic helped Ms. Melchionna persuade them to detail the abuse, which gave her enough cause to arrest the nephew. Ms. Melchionna and 17 other city workers were honored Dec. 7 at this year's Hundred Year Association awards for their exemplary efforts. In all, the association disbursed $35,000 in awards and $43,000 in college scholarships to career civil servants and children of city employees at a morning ceremony held at 1 Police Plaza.

BED SHEETS, TOWELS, AND BEYOND: Det. Cheryl Melchionna (third from left) is flanked by family members, colleagues and friends after she received $6,000 at this year's Hundred Year Association awards for her work helping domestic violence victims in Brooklyn. The award was presented by John Banks (center), a representative from Con Ed, which sponsored the award. Ms. Melchionna said the case wasn't just about making sure the man would no longer menace his aunts. It included helping the emaciated sisters restock their kitchen and refurnish their empty apartment.

'I Could Spare Them'

She took sheets, towels, and other items from her own home to the sisters. "I really didn't tell my husband," said Ms. Melchionna, who is married to a Sergeant from the same 60th Precinct in Brooklyn. "I wasn't using it, so I gave it to the sisters. Who doesn't have some extra towels and cups around the house?"

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'I JUST KNEW IT WOULD BE OKAY': Police Officer Marie Frawley (center) donated a kidney to a woman who had requested help in her church newsletter. She received this newspaper's $2,500 award. Also pictured are Gene Kastner (left), her husband, and Edward B. Prial, THE CHIEFLEADER's publisher. She received $6,000 for her actions and innovative work to combat domestic violence throughout her 20-year career with the NYPD. "It's an honor to be mentioned, recognized, and appreciated by others," she said. "I'm so blessed."

The Isaac Liberman Public Service Awards have been given since 1958 to recognize the civic contributions of career civil servants at work and off the job. They are named for the department store executive who founded the Hundred Year Association in 1927.

The awards symbolize the public-private partnership between the city and the members of the association, which is made up of more than 200 businesses and non-profit organizations that have existed here for at least a century.

'Best and Brightest'

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly noted that the honorees represent a spectrum of 20 city agencies. The employees, he pointed out, work in various capacities to educate children, put out fires, and transport millions along major roads and streets. "But rarely are you all in one room," he told the crowd. "With the best and the brightest from so many agencies gathered here today we have a virtual public think-tank."

THE CHIEF-LEADER, founded in 1897, is a member of the association and sponsored an individual award, worth $2,500, that was given to Police Officer Marie Frawley. In July 2004, Ms. Frawley donated one of her kidneys to a woman from her hometown, Pearl River, Rockland County. "I saw it in my church newsletter," she said. "It had no name; it just had a phone number saying a person was in desperate need of a kidney, so I called the number and that's how I started."

She decided to go through with the operation after getting information about the surgery and discussing it with her husband. "After I was tested and we knew I was a match, we met," she said, referring to the woman who received her kidney.

'A Feeling' It Would Work

Asked whether she ever thought it was too dangerous, she said, "I had this feeling, like a sixth sense that everything would be okay. I probably should have had more fear than I had, but it was very limited."

In a lowered tone she added, "My husband had more fear than I had, but understandably so."

The other top Isaac Liberman Public Service Award winners, their assigned agency and work titles, the award sponsors and the amounts they received are:

George Bermudez, Department of Transportation, Deputy Chief of Electrical Inspections, Ralph K. Smith Public Service Award, $5,000;

Naomi Clifford, Comptroller's Office, Director of Training and Staff Development, Emigrant Savings Bank; and Helena Pearman, Correction Department, Correction Captain, Amalgamated Bank of New York, $2,500.

Twelve other city workers received $1,000 awards. Their names, titles, and departments are: Morshed Alam, Quality Assurance Specialist, Department of Environmental Protection;

Michael Giannadeo, Assistant Director Work Experience Program, Department for the Aging;

Milton Gonzalez, Principal Community Liaison Worker, Department of Housing Preservation and Development;

John Harrison, Director of Tracking and Review, Human Resources Administration; Adele Johnson, Community Service Aide, Brooklyn District Attorney's Office; Louis Masiello, Transition Coordinator, Department of Education;

Haleena Nalevanko, Director of Management, Department of Small Business Services;

Paul Navarro, Director of Special Services, Department of Housing Preservation and Development;

Loriann Scheuermann, Sergeant, NYPD; Joyce Slaughter-Scott, Field Supervisor, Human Resources Administration; Matther Symons, Deputy Director of Urban Park Rangers; and Parrese Wade, Principal Administrative Associate, Fire Department.