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Life Lessons Serve Resident Manager Well

Written by a dm n on S ep em be r 2 8,, 2 01 1. Posted in Uncategorized. ad miin Se ptte mb er 28 20 11 Recommend 0 Tweet 0 0

Super of the Year

By JJe rm aiin e T ay or er ma ne Ta yllo r Frank Rampino learned his first, and most important, life lessons about hard work and sacrifice from his parents. !My father and mother had six children, said Rampino, 53. !We were poor and we never knew it, because my parents worked hard to make sure we always had everything we needed. He said he also learned a lot about sacrifice as he saw his parents, second-generation Italian-Americans, sleep on !a pull-out couch in the living room of the family"s small Borough Park, Brooklyn, apartment while his five siblings and he shared the bedrooms. It"s those lessons, more than any other, that Rampino, a member of SEIU 32BJ for the last 32 years, has taken with him as he"s moved through his career and begun his own family. And it"s that same commitment to hard work and helping others that was on display 10 years ago on 9/11. !It was horrible, said Rampino, who at the time was a residence manager at 400 Chambers St.'s only a few short blocks from the World Trade Center. !The dust alone was overwhelming, he said, adding that pieces of debris from the plane and collapse of the towers actually struck a number of nearby buildings, including his own. !You couldn"t breathe, you couldn"t see. But it was largely due to Rampino"s quick response that everyone in his building was evacuated without anyone being hurt. And once his building was clear, Rampino, who had a 4"4 parked in a nearby garage, says he offered to assist police and fire department personnel in moving equipment in and around the site.

Frank Rampino was named the Super of the Year. Photo by HAI ZHANG

Looking back 10 years later, however, he characterizes his actions that day simply: !I just like helping people. That"s why Rampino, now resident manager at 171 E. 84th St. on the Upper East Side, is still helping people. In his current role, he maintains the 38-story residential condominium and its more than 200 apartment units with the help of a staff of 15. !The people are very nice, he said. Although he admits that it"s !a lot of coordination and requires an ability to deal with !multiple

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Life Lessons Serve Resident Manager Well | NYPress.com - N...

http://nypress.com/life-lessons-serve-resident-manager-well/

personalities, he said he loves the job, even after all these years. !You just have to know how to work with people. When he"s not working with his staff or tenants, Rampino is also juggling his duties as president of the Manhattan Resident Managers Association, which represents all of the residence managers (or building superintendents) in the borough. As president, Rampino says he"s most proud of the efforts the group has undertaken to give back to the community by raising money for scholarships for young people and donating to such causes as Toys for Tots and Ronald McDonald House. When asked for a fond memory from his career, Rampino recalled the story of a young African immigrant he met a number of years back who was stuck in a dead-end job making $6 an hour with no benefits and no opportunity for advancement. Rampino says he was able to get the young man a job as a porter making almost double his previous pay. It was through that job that the young man met his wife. He"s now a member of the union and has a family, said Rampino. !If you"re willing to work hard, I don"t mind helping, he said, adding that he has people from all different backgrounds on his staff. !I"ve got African Americans, Dominicans, Italians, Albanians's you name it, I"ve got it, he said proudly. And at a time when many unions are being criticized, Rampino said he"s grateful to SEIU 32BJ and other unions for working hard to make a profession that was once !looked down upon by some a viable, well-respected career path. !Now this is a job that people want, he said. !You have great medical coverage, you have job security. Thank god for the union. Still, despite how far he"s traveled from that two-bedroom apartment in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Rampino said he tries to always remain humble, remember where he came from and never lose sight of his values. !I don"t toot my own horn, said Rampino. !This is just the way my parents brought me up. Y ou m gh lliik e:: Yo u miig htt ke

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