Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Vito D’Ambrosio jokingly says he is involved in “too many” civic organizations and volunteer efforts. The list is, in fact, astonishingly long.
A resident of Westchester, in suburban Chicago, D’Ambrosio is the longtime president of the Italian American Executives of Transportation. He serves on the executive board of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans and on the board of directors for the Columbian Club of Chicago. He is a member of the Fr. August Feccia Charitable Foundation, Chicagoland Italian American Charitable Organization, Italian American Police Association, Italian American Labor Council and Sons and Daughters of Italy in America. He also serves an ethics commissioner in Westchester and volunteers at Casa Italia in suburban Stone Park.
“There was a time in my life, in my 30s, where I was busy raising a family and doing all kinds of stuff,” says D’Ambrosio, who has three children and two grandchildren. “Then, all of a sudden, you start doing some volunteering — and it doesn’t end.”
D’Ambrosio says it all started when his daughter got a scholarship from the IAET, which prompted him to join as a member. He has served as the organization’s president since 2004, and jokes that his good friend, the late Frank Accardi, jinxed him by telling him he’d be president for life.
D’Ambrosio was born in the small town of Ricigliano, just outside Salerno in the Campania region of Italy. His family immigrated to the United States when he was 4, eventually settling in the heart of Chicago’s Little Italy. He grew up speaking Italian at home, but lost most of his knowledge as he was being encouraged to assimilate, he says.
A graduate of Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, D’Ambrosio has bachelor’s degrees in business administration and political science from Lewis University, and a master’s degree from DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management.
His professional career includes 33 years at General Motors, during which he rose to upper management and received national recognition for innovative and cost-saving projects, including five that went national and one that went global, he says. He also served as executive director for Casa Italia from late 2012 to early 2015. He retired in May 2023 as director of sales for Executive Building Maintenance (EBM) in Schaumburg, Illinois.
The IAET is a vibrant organization that numbers 245 members, a 20% growth since 2022, D’Ambrosio says. Members meet on the second Wednesday of the month at Donny G’s in Elmwood Park.
“Our membership is extremely active and participatory,” he says. “Our organization does our best to ‘walk the walk.’ Our membership is very focused on being good, upstanding members of the community.”
“Community relations and interacting with other Italian American organizations is a very key element — and very time-consuming,” he adds.
The IAET holds several fundraisers throughout the year, including an annual awards dinner, which has averaged almost 600 attendees in the last two decades, and an always sold-out golf outing, he proudly notes.
The organization confers the Augustus Caesar Awards to people between the ages of 25 to 35 who show “promise and potential to exceed in their industry,” he says, and holds a yearly competition featuring the vocal scholarship winners from Casa Italia, a fashion show, a picnic and a Christmas party.
Thanks to its benefactors and members, the IAET has awarded more than $800,000 to deserving students over time, D’Ambrosio says. It also has provided backpacks and school supplies to needy families, sponsored educational initiatives, and hosted events for seniors and veterans.
The organization has contributed to a multitude of nonprofits and civic organizations, including Casa Italia, the Midwest Council for Children with Disabilities, Disabled American Veterans, Mercy Home for Boys and Girls in Chicago, the San Rocco di Potenza Society, the Cesare Battisti Lodge, the Italian American Veterans Museum in Stone Park, the Make-a-Wish Foundation and many more. It also has funded relief efforts after earthquakes in Italy and the war in Ukraine.
The IAET has sponsored a variety of cultural endeavors. For example, it was the first Italian American organization to support the 2007 documentary “And they Came to Chicago: The Italian American Legacy” and helped fund the 2015 book “Bebop, Swing, and Bella Musica: Jazz and the Italian American Experience Paperback” by Bill Dal Cerro and David Anthony Witter as well as the the 2023 Dick Biondi documentary, he says.
Over the years, D’Ambrosio has received many professional and community honors, including two from the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy: a Leonardo DaVinci Award in 2007 and a Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2018.
For now, D’Ambrosio says, he has plans to reel back his volunteerism. “There is always something else that comes up. Another cause, or somebody else who needs help.”
