Isabel Villar to Receive Top Award in County’s Senior Hall of Fame
Cuban-born Isabel E. Villar of White Plains, the founder and executive director of El Centro Hispano since 1974 and a founder of the Westchester Hispanic Coalition, will receive top honors at the 30th Annual Senior Citizens Hall of Fame Awards Luncheon on December 3.
“The Senior Citizens Hall of Fame has been a tradition in Westchester for three decades,” said Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino in announcing the award winners. “Our honorees are extraordinary. Individually and as a group, they strengthen our communities and are true role models for us all. Isabel Villar is a remarkable example of just such a person.”
Villar is one of 51 Westchester residents age 60 and older from the “Class of 2012” who will be inducted at a festive luncheon at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown.
“I feel very special,” Villar said about the recognition. “I never forgot my beginnings. To get such a prestigious award is wonderful. I never thought I’d be in that category. This can only happen in the United States of America.”
Isabel Villar came to the United States with her family in 1966 as a young adult who spoke no English. She immediately enrolled in White Plains High School but at that time there were no English as a Second Language classes so Villar said it was “sink or swim.” She swam, indeed, and when such ESL classes began the following year she enrolled on the advanced level.
El Centro Hispano is a community organization that targets the Hispanic population. Many of the programs it offers help young people to earn college scholarships, other programs include bilingual Boy and Girl Scout troops and its new, state-of-the-art Technology Center, which offers computer classes for children, adults and seniors.
Villar received a scholarship to Manhattanville College where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science/Latin American Studies. She also has advanced degrees in administration and guidance from New York University, Iona College and Long Island University.
In 1988 she became a guidance counselor at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, Conn., and in 1999 she founded the Brien McMahon High School Hispanic Alumni Association with the mission of having Hispanic alumni serve as role models and mentors for the Hispanic students. The association has awarded $1,000 a year in scholarships since it began.
Villar’s resume has three, doubled-spaced pages that list the more than 44 affiliations she has had over the years and the awards she has won during her long career. Awards include ones from the Westchester Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Westchester Community Opportunity Program and the Westchester County Human Rights Commission. She also received the Americanism Award from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Villar says one of her proudest achievements was being selected as one of the first inductees into the White Plains High School Hall of Fame.
Of the 51 honorees this year, five are 90 or older, including Kitty Geissler of Tarrytown, who recently turned 100.
The Senior Citizens Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Westchester Public/Private Partnership for Aging Services, the Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services (DSPS) and the Westchester County Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation. This year’s event is co-sponsored by VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans, CenterLight Healthcare and a partnership from the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, which includes the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention and ElderServeHealth.
In addition, The Upper Class LLC, a Westchester-based family business that specializes in trips for seniors and boomers, is donating two day-trips to each of the six top honorees.
The Senior Citizens Senior Hall of Fame was started by former Westchester County Executive Andrew P. O’Rourke, who led the county from 1983 to 1997. Its purpose is to honor those who have contributed their energies and talents as professionals and volunteers to make significant and enduring contributions to enhance the quality of life countywide or in their home communities.
Seniors are nominated to the Hall of Fame by members of the community and the winners are selected by a screening committee composed of past Hall of Fame honorees, members of the Senior and Older American Advisory Councils and the DSPS staff. The names of the honorees are engraved on plaques that are permanently displayed at the DSPS office in Mount Vernon.
Over the past three decades, more than 900 seniors have been inducted.
Class of 2012 Top Honoree:
White Plains – Isabel E. Villar
Special Recognition Honorees:
Mount Vernon – Marleen Dandridge
Peekskill – The Rev. Jeannette Phillips
Purdys – John Caralyus
Scarsdale – Carol Stix
Somers – Barry Singer
Class of 2012
Armonk – William Golub
Briarcliff Manor – Joseph Lalak
Chappaqua – Dr. William Flank
Cortlandt Manor – Marie Turner
Croton-on-Hudson – Laura Seitz, Carol Shanesy
Dobbs Ferry – Claire Stein
Eastchester – Robert Moynihan
Elmsford – Elaine Dixon
Hartsdale – David Doynow, Yvette Gralla
Larchmont – Lynn Reichgott
Mamaroneck – Charles Hessler, Shirley Jones
Mohegan Lake – Ray Procious
Mount Kisco – Lenore Safian
Mount Vernon – Phyllis Rosen, Anne Sweazey, Edithia Tracey
New Rochelle – Maureen Lundahl, Dorothy Sunshine, Judith Weber
North White Plains – Lorraine Wuttke
Pleasantville – Lina Spedaliere
Rye – Nancy Haneman
Rye Brook – Allene Berman, Rose Sciandra, Marcia Teschner
Scarsdale – Philip Feiner
Tarrytown – Kitty Geissler
Thornwood – Lee Hart
White Plains – Janice Beatty-Hudson, Ganel Gibbs, Dickie Kay, Carolyn Rogers, Marge Weaver
Yonkers – Claudia Brigman, Euphemia Brown, Jacqueline Campanile, Margaret Silby, Barbara Weinbaum; Joyce Wignal
Yorktown Heights – Salvatore Amuso, Robert Schavrien, Theresa Tinger
