Joseph Pontoriero of Warren Recognized for WorldCast Work
On October 6, 2025, Joseph Pontoriero was honored for his work with WorldCast25 at a special assembly at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, NJ. Among the Awards he received were a Letter of Commendation from the Italian Consulate in NYC and a Sports Leadership Award from the football Giants.
All in the Family: Award to Star Runner Aidan Morrow
At the recent Hasbrouck Heights High School Athletic Awards Dinner, Aidan Morrow was presented a very special Sports Leadership Award by the Silvio Laccetti Foundation. Morrow received a large engraved plaque summarizing his remarkable achievements in Track and Cross Country at HHHS.
The plaque is like an ancient Stela, or marker, used by ancient rulers to memorialize events–it is chock full of inscriptions. It begins by noting the generational aspects of the Award:
A long time ago, Brian Morrow, HHHS Class of “89 set school records for track and cross country times. Not too long ago, Evan Morrow, HHHS Class of ’22 broke all of his father’s records. This year, Aidan Morrow, Class of ’25, surpassed his brother’s achievements.
Continuing the familial nature of the award, it was presented to Morrow by his great-uncle Warren Fisher, a 1966 graduate of HHHS. Warren’s grandmother was a teacher in the Hasbrouck Heights system! Aidan represents the most recent generation’s contributions to the town. Aidan has received a Track/XC scholarship from Appalachian State University.
The award was granted by The Silvio Laccetti Foundation which recognizes student accomplishments in a variety of pursuits. In running sports, the Foundation has honored or assisted 8 recent college All American athletes.
Warren Fisher has worked with the Foundation as engineer and design artist on a number of significant projects including the Union City Sun Dial, in Ellsworth Park, and, very recently, the donation of a sculptured American Flag of rare woods, donated to Parsippany Township where Warren currently resides.
Pictured below: Warren Fisher, Aidan Morrow, Dr. Silvio Laccetti.
Flag Donation
The Foundation decided to gift the Township of Parsippany a sculpted flag made of rare woods, created by Warren Fisher, retired Captain, USAF and long-time Parsippany resident.
Warren is the engineer/designer for projects of the Foundation.
In commemoration of Flag Day, Mayor James Barberio welcomed local artist Warren Fisher and Prof. Silvio Laccetti to Town Hall for a dedication and unveiling of Mr. Fisher’s handcrafted American flag sculpture, specially created for the township. The Parsippany resident, a retired Captain in the United States Air Force, dedicates his time to crafting various art pieces from wood. The flag was made for Parsippany Town Hall after Mr. Fisher and Prof. Laccetti, who sponsored the project through the Silvio Laccetti Foundation, presented the idea to Mayor Barberio. “This is a tremendously meaningful piece of art that Mr. Fisher has given us,” Mayor Barberio stated. “The American flag is very meaningful to me. It represents my father and all the veterans who fought for this great country. The American flag should be flown with pride and dignity, and I am truly honored that you gifted us this beautiful piece of art.”
WorldCast 25
Worldcast25 has expanded to nations across the globe: Ethiopia, Romania, and Spain. It continues to provide a platform for local students in different areas to highlight their own environmental problems that are significant. WorldCast25 is the fifth in the series produced by the Silvio Laccetti Foundation, in cooperation with the Education Office of the Italian Consulate in New York City.
Hoboken Students in Theatre Competition; Laccetti Foundation Lists 2025 Plans; Restaurant Opening in Harrison
Running Against The Wind With Angels On His Shoulders
A four-year track and cross-country (XC) star at Stillwater High in the Upstate Capital Region of New York, Anthony Zazzaro, a high honors student, is used to bucking fierce headwinds Stillwater is a very small school (graduating class of around 70) with a strong athletic tradition. Nevertheless, the XC team had only two members this past year. For Anthony, it means running and training alone, close mentoring by his Coach, Shawn McClements and plenty of support from his townsfolk for whom he has become a familiar sight running in all kinds of weather – all year long.
https://www.wetheitalians.com/sport-entertainment-new-york/running-against-wind-angels-his-shoulders
Monuments, Venice Programs and Environmental Studies
- Laccetti Foundation Presents Sundial at Union City Park
via NJ.com
Laccetti Foundation presents sundial at Union City park, Oct. 1, 2024
– Silvio Laccetti, founder of the Laccetti Foundation and a longtime professor of history/social sciences at Stevens Institute of Technology, dedicates a four-foot sundial at Ellsworth Park in Union City. The sundial, crafted from Argentinian marble, is in tribute to 20th century artist Vincenzo Pellarin, who introduced terrazzo and mosaic art to the United States. Joe Shine | For The Jersey Journal
Video: Laccetti Foundation Donates Marble Sundial to Union City
via Hudson TV channel
Video: Full dedication ceremony
via Laccetti Foundation channel
- WorldCast 23
“WorldCast 23 spans the globe in reporting on Major Environmental Problems
Once again, the WorldCast 23, like its two predecessors, was a success. This year, WorldCast enlarged its footprint, becoming truly global by reaching out to schools in Ireland, Denmark and Australia – as well as the US and Brazil. Once again, local students from these areas made presentations on problems of global significance as they witnessed them first hand.
The following news story summarizes WodrldCast 23 and p laces it in perspective. Clearly, without the direction of the project by Francesco Pontoriero , a student at Delbarton School, this year’s program would not have succeeded. We gratefully acknowledge his effort, and the work of the myriad of students from around the globe who made WorldCast 23 a success.”
– Dr. Silvio Laccetti
Read the full article at New Jersey Hills Media Group
- 2022 Charlie Kontos Award Winner
The Silvio Laccetti Foundation proudly announces that Logan Bateman of Montclair High School, NJ is the 2022 Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award winner. He is honored for his tremendous effort in organizing and implementing significant preservation work at the Bonsal Reserve in Clifton, NJ.
From Rutgers’ web site: access the original article here.
The Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award is named for Charlie Kontos, who passed away in 2010 and was, at the time, enrolled as a doctoral student in the Ecology and Evolution Graduate Program administered by the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Before his premature passing at age 33, Kontos had already made a significant contribution to wildlife biology studies with his discovery of the return of the fisher to New Jersey, drawing national attention in the process.
Montclair High School senior, Logan Bateman, who undertook a remarkable remediation project in the Bonsal Preserve in Clifton, New Jersey, is the winner of the 2022 Carlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award, funded by the Silvio Laccetti Foundation. Bateman, whose effort mobilized some 30 people to complete the work, built foot bridges and planted approximately 40 trees in the preserve.
Logan Bateman, Charles Kontos Sr. and Silvio Laccetti. Photo courtesy of The Silvio Laccetti Foundation.
An awards ceremony in Kontos’ honor took place on Oct. 1 at Rutgers University. The event included remarks from Kontos’ parents, who wrote, “On Nature’s Trail with Charlie,” an illustrated volume created in their son’s honor which was presented to Rutgers. Kontos’ mother, Carolyn, took a solo trip to the jungles of Panama after her son died, to visit the sites where much of his more recent work had unfolded.
Remarks were also made by Kontos’ former advisor at Rutgers, professor Richard Lathrop, as well as Silvio Laccetti, who was Kontos’ advisor at Stevens Institute of Technology. Kontos obtained a bachelor’s degree in Engineering at Stevens and a master’s degree in Biology from Montclair State University.
In addition to the illustrated book about Kontos and his work, his family dedicated a gateway kiosk in his memory in 2016 on the 400-acre Rutgers Ecological Preserve. The kiosk leads to a set of trails that students and others can access conveniently from the Livingston Campus.
Logan Bateman is the grandson of Raymond H. Bateman, former NJ State Senator and adjunct Professor at Rutgers, and second winner of the Kontos scholarship. The previous winner of the Kontos Award was Connor Cunningham of Glen Rock High School, NJ.
- WorldCast a Huge Success
Reproduced with permission from nj.com
nj.com subscribers may reference the article here.
WodrldCast, sponsored by the Silvio Laccetti Foundation, is a web-based educational experience linking high schools across the globe. In its first edition, students met face-to-face to discuss urgent local environmental problems which have a broad significance worldwide. By every measure, this Global Summit was a complete success.
The two hour WorldCast featured presentations from 9 schools in the NJ-NY Metro Area, Brazil and Italy. Topics included: The problems in the Brazilian Rain Forests, including the little know problem of wildfires therein; Analysis of urban sprawl, urban ecoculture and infrastructural weaknesses in Venice and New York City; Dilemmas of the Jersey Shore and tourism; Conditions in the Polar Ice Caps as seen through student interviews of Enzo Baracco, a world-famous environmental photographer.
New Jersey schools which participated included: Becton Regional in East Rutherford, Pt. Pleasant Boro and Watchung Valley Regional in Warren. Other schools included La Scuola d’Italia in New York City, Marco Polo Liceo in Venice, the Novara School District, Italy, Kirmayr Prep, Serra Negra, Brazil and the Rotary Interact Club in Serra Negra.
WorldCast was headquartered at the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority’s Meadowlands Conservation Center in East Rutherford.through the courtesy of Vincent Prieto President of NJSPEA and Terry Doss, Co-Chief Scientist at the Environmental Center. Ca’ Foscari University in Venice supplied the internet platform for the effort while the Education Office of the New York Italian Consulate played a role in coordinating trans-Atlantic communications. In all, over 100 students, and scores of institutions worked together with the Laccetti Foundation to realize this unique effort.
Aside from meeting and learning from each other, most students
were both excited and awed by presenting to a world audience from New Zealand to Greenland. As
many students, teachers, and even parents commented afterwards, WorldCast was a growth experience for all involved. - Foundation’s Venice Project an Astounding Success
The Silvio Laccetti Foundation decided in its January 2020 planning meeting to focus attention on the environmental problems of Venice. Originally, their plans called for Garibaldi Award winners to volunteer to raise awareness on their college campuses by showing a film and circulating petitions to ‘help save Venice’ from the behemoth cruise ships which were invading their canals and lagoon https://italiantribune.com/new-projects-for-laccetti-foundation/
Shortly after this meeting, the Covid 19 pandemic developed. All plans were put on hold.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2020 that the plans were revitalized. The first step in this revival was granting the first Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award to Connor Cunningham of Glen Rock High School. He immediately became interested in the Venice project.
Recipient chosen for Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award
Fortunately, at the same time, groups in Italy began environmental initiatives that intersected with our own interests.
In December, 2020, Connor participated in a high level zoom conference at which he was tasked with creating a student version of the Davos Convention (which sought to preserve historic cultural centers from over-development) and a student Action Plan for saving Venice by raising awareness of its problems.
Based on these successes, Dr. Laccetti suggested the novel idea of having a trans-Atlantic zoom conference for high school students about environmental and economic problems of Venice. The Office of Education of the New York Consulate, headed by Annavaleria Guazzieri quickly joined the effort. She lined up participants in Italy, including 2 high schools and the University of Ca’ Foscari, while Dr. Laccetti recruited two high schools in NJ, Lyndhurst, and Point Pleasant Boro and associates of his Foundation.
https://www.wetheitalians.com/default/us-italy-environmental-education-program-begins
The 90 minute zoomcast was an incredible success, the first trans-Atlantic webcast of its kind ever competed.All participants clamored for more such programs and they will be forthcoming.
High school students converse with Italian peers | Star News Group
In the aftermath of the international conference, Dr. Laccetti penned an editorial as a punctuation mark for the event.
The Foundation is proud to have had a leading role in pioneering a new form of interactive high school education in a global setting.
There’s more to come. Much more!
The Charlie Kontos Award for Environmental Activism
- 2022 Charlie Kontos Award Winner
The Silvio Laccetti Foundation proudly announces that Logan Bateman of Montclair High School, NJ is the 2022 Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award winner. He is honored for his tremendous effort in organizing and implementing significant preservation work at the Bonsal Reserve in Clifton, NJ.
From Rutgers’ web site: access the original article here.
The Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award is named for Charlie Kontos, who passed away in 2010 and was, at the time, enrolled as a doctoral student in the Ecology and Evolution Graduate Program administered by the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Before his premature passing at age 33, Kontos had already made a significant contribution to wildlife biology studies with his discovery of the return of the fisher to New Jersey, drawing national attention in the process.
Montclair High School senior, Logan Bateman, who undertook a remarkable remediation project in the Bonsal Preserve in Clifton, New Jersey, is the winner of the 2022 Carlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award, funded by the Silvio Laccetti Foundation. Bateman, whose effort mobilized some 30 people to complete the work, built foot bridges and planted approximately 40 trees in the preserve.
Logan Bateman, Charles Kontos Sr. and Silvio Laccetti. Photo courtesy of The Silvio Laccetti Foundation.
An awards ceremony in Kontos’ honor took place on Oct. 1 at Rutgers University. The event included remarks from Kontos’ parents, who wrote, “On Nature’s Trail with Charlie,” an illustrated volume created in their son’s honor which was presented to Rutgers. Kontos’ mother, Carolyn, took a solo trip to the jungles of Panama after her son died, to visit the sites where much of his more recent work had unfolded.
Remarks were also made by Kontos’ former advisor at Rutgers, professor Richard Lathrop, as well as Silvio Laccetti, who was Kontos’ advisor at Stevens Institute of Technology. Kontos obtained a bachelor’s degree in Engineering at Stevens and a master’s degree in Biology from Montclair State University.
In addition to the illustrated book about Kontos and his work, his family dedicated a gateway kiosk in his memory in 2016 on the 400-acre Rutgers Ecological Preserve. The kiosk leads to a set of trails that students and others can access conveniently from the Livingston Campus.
Logan Bateman is the grandson of Raymond H. Bateman, former NJ State Senator and adjunct Professor at Rutgers, and second winner of the Kontos scholarship. The previous winner of the Kontos Award was Connor Cunningham of Glen Rock High School, NJ.
- Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award 2020
The Silvio Laccetti Foundation has just announced a new award, the Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award. This award has been named for one of Prof. Laccetti’s Stevens students who went on to begin a promising career in Wildlife Biology. Charlie Kontos was 33 when he died suddently of an undiagnosed heart condition in 2010.
Charlie was an intrepid environmentalist, having done major field work in the Rocky Mountains, Caribbean Islands and in the jungles of Panama – as well as having performed intensive work in New Jersey. A most important result of his NJ work was the discovery of the fisher cat’s return to the Garden State. This finding was widely publicized in his field publications and in the popular press.
The winner of this years first Kontos Award is Connor Cunningham, a senior at Glen Rock High in NJ. His achievements in environmental work to date have been stunning as the articles below will show. Since being honored by the Foundation, Connor has wholeheartedly jumped into our Venice Project, and will now be a focal point and contact for the Volunteers 4 Venice, which focuses on safeguarding the environment of Venice. In particular Vols 4 Venice seeks to ban cruise ships from the canals and lagoons of Venice – an effort supported by a good number of Garibaldi Award winners.
Recipient chosen for Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award
Connor Cunningham-Charlie Kontos Environmental Activist Award 2020 Recipient GLEN ROCK — A rising high school senior is using microbes to remove dangerous algae from a local pond.
Connor Cunningham, a 17-year-old Glen Rock High School student, is cleaning up the algae bloom in Saddle River County Park’s duck pond by releasing microorganisms into the water.
Donation of Statue to Little League
- Foundation Honors the Legacy of Carl Stotz, Founder of Little League, with Statue Dedication, in June, 2021
On June 19, 2021, the Foundation dedicated a statue, “The Centerfielder” to the Original Little League in honor of the sports leadership legacy of Little League founder, Carl Stotz. As is explained in the material below, Dr. Laccetti developed an interest in Carl Stotz’s achievement as a result of Laccetti giving a leadership course in Stevens Tech.two decades ago. At that time, he concluded that the man and his legacy was not well-known, but deserved more recognition.
Upon retiring, and after starting his Foundation,Dr. Laccetti visited Williamsport, Pa and the various Little league fields and sites.It was then, in 2018 that he decided to write about Stotz and to commemorate him. First he placed a tribute brick in the walk, promising a statue soon after that. He delivered on his promise, as the articles and video below will show.
Article from pennsylvanianewstoday.com – June 21, 2021:
Original Little League Awarded by the Foundation for the Gift of a Bronze Statue Outside Headquarters
It doesn’t have the size and flash of the International Little League Complex, but it doesn’t spoil the history that oozes from every corner of the Small League field.
It is the birthplace of Little League baseball. It carries the dream of Karl E. Stotts. Thanks to the efforts of the Silvio Laccetti Foundation, it is now home to brand new statues.
Statue standing along 4th The streets that Lasetti and longtime original Little League supporter Jim McKinney spoke on Saturday morning were visible to everyone.
Laccetti, a former professor of history and social sciences at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, worked to get the statues donated on behalf of his foundation.
Laccetti talked about the meaning of Little League baseball and the long-term impact of Stotts on children around the world. At the end of his memorial, Lasetti was kind enough to take a picture with the player and his parents in front of the statue.
Mayor Williamsport and former Little League graduate Derek Slaughter were at hand to see the new statue.
Brett Crosley / Northcentralpa.com
“I played here from teeball to major,” Slaughter said. “It was great to come back and see some of the people who were here at the time. To think about all the great memories, I’m here original and great.”
Slaughter met with the players and other stakeholders before the presentation and wished everyone good luck.
“I hope they make great memories like me when I see the kids playing now,” Slaughter said. “The statue looks great. The field looks great. It’s exciting.”
Full article on pennsylvanianewstoday.com →
Other articles:
Little League founder deserves more recognition, praise | Opinion
Opinion: The divergent legacies of Little League founder
The above article represents Dr. Laccetti’s first activity and publication about the Carl Stotz legacy.