The Marlboro Chapter of UNICO recently held their annual tomato contest at the Benmarl Winery. In May, residents purchased seeds and by August all of the submissions were judged in a variety of categories. This year Giuseppe Montaperto won in the Senior Division as well as in the Overall category, with a tomato of 1126 grams. Also in the senior division Manny Lopergolo came in 2nd place with a tomato of 704 grams, and Ralph Avollino came in 3rd place with 700 grams.

In the Youth division (under 16) Danielle LoPiccolo came in 1st Place with a tomato weighing 752 grams. Leon Spaccarelli took 2nd Place with a submission of 672 grams and Steve Amato took 3rd Place with 646 grams.

In the 16-to-65 category Gaby Avellino came in 1st with an 824 gram tomato; Nick Pascale in 2nd Place with an 808 gram tomato and Joe Janiero took 3rd Place with a 692 gram tomato.

Gerry Gervais took home the Most Unusual Tomato award.

The website for the Marlboro chapter of UNICO states that the founders hoped that, “the rest of society would come to know and understand the real contributions of Italian Americans to our way of life. Its sole purpose was to unite all Italian Americans and motivate them to become more civic minded. In order to accomplish this, members would have to understand that they would have to make sacrifices, not for personal gain, but for service to others. In the ensuing years UNICO became an acronym that stood for Unity, Neighborliness, Integrity, Charity, and Opportunity...by supporting charitable, scientific, cultural, educational, and literary projects.”

Benmarl owner Victor Spaccarelli Jr., said the event, “is another great day, another great turnout and it’s nice to see everybody.” He said that he is now a member of UNICO, but, “for me the greatest thing I can do is to give back to the community; it feels good, and for some reason it comes back to you a hundred times in ways you never expect.”

Nick Johannets, who handled the gate and serves on UNICO’s Board of Directors, said, “we did nice today and we had great weather. We had a lot of sales and did well with the tomato plants this year. In the spring we sell them and they know they can come to this as each plant gets you two people to come to this event. Everybody looks like they had a great time.”

Johannets said UNICO uses the money they raise from this event to fund their Achievement Awards that are given to Marlboro High School seniors who have overcome challenges in their lives and graduated.

The New Paltz based band Blue Plate Special performed a variety of classic rock n roll, pop and dance music all afternoon. They were led by singer/guitarist Genesee Rochetti and included John Ferro on guitar, Denice Hartmann on bass, Sage Rochetti on keyboard and Justin Brown on drums.