If you followed the 2007 expedition down the Hudson River, or if you’ve been through the gondolablog a few times, you know that the man in the striped shirt here is Vittorio Orio. The man on the left with the red, white and green sash is another “unsung hero” of our expedition. His name is Vincent Tummino and he was instrumental in so many ways. “Vinny”, as we call him, is a retired FDNY firefighter with over 36 years of active service and is the current president of the International Columbia Association
(see http://www.internationalcolumbia.com/).
Why is Vinny an unsung hero?
He helped me plan things logistically,
interfaced with city authorities,
picked up Vittorio, Enzo and Bepi from JFK airport and brought them up to Albany,
transported the gondola trailer back down to the NYC area,
found a place to store it for a week,
organized and hosted the ceremony at Ground Zero,
arranged the towing of the gondola to Staten Island,
hauled her out on trailer,
got us a spot in the Columbus Day Parade,
provided a tow vehicle for the parade,
got me in touch with Staten Island Towing Service,
and brought the gondola to Staten Island Towing so she could be placed in the truck for her ride home to California.
Vinny also handled lodging for some of the team while in the NYC area and handled many other things I can’t think of right now – probably because I didn’t have to think about them.
For these and many other contributions, I speak for the team when I say “thanks Vinny, we couldn’t have done it without you”.
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