Pennino Project

The Pennino Project, a charity currently being developed, will provide financial assistance to children's homes and orphanages. This nonprofit endeavor is taking shape – its specific policy directions are presently being honed – but its values and guiding principles are intact. Our mission is to reinforce the need for quality orphan care so that each and every orphan who is placed in a home, village, or residential treatment center will have a high quality of life.

The Pennino Project carries great weight with Terrier Tri as my father and his five brothers were all raised together in an orphanage. My father, James Victor (Vic) Pennino, died of cancer on Father's Day 2004. Following his death, my thought was to create a nonprofit organization whose purpose would be to raise money for cancer research, as I was stunned and shaken by how quickly the cancer spread, taking his life only 5 months after he was diagnosed. However, the more thought I put into the project the more I desired to raise money for a cause that had contributed to saving his life, not ending it. My father lived to be 83-years-old and were it not for the orphanage which took him in, providing care and instilling sound values, his legacy may have been quite different.

Dad was born on January 25, 1921 in New York City. When he was four-years-old, his father (my grandfather) disappeared and was presumed dead. Without skills, money and in poor health, my grandmother, also an Italian immigrant, struggled to raise her six sons alone. When the depression hit, she lost her job, and was no longer able to keep her family together. Consequently, in 1930, at the age of nine, my Dad and his brothers were taken to the courthouse. The judge having no authority to place the children with another family – after all who in their right mind would take in all those boys, suggested that they be taken to a Catholic nun who had a facility for orphaned children.

My dad's childhood memories were those of a Children's Home where they were fed, sheltered, cared for and schooled. A place where the six brothers were able to grow up together and not be torn apart. After all, their only remaining security was what was left of their family, it was their sanctuary…their refuge. The boys were taught to work and become responsible citizens. One by one, as they grew up, each went into the world and made his way, continuing to support one another, as well as their mother. They built homes, businesses and families, and passed these values on to their children.

In the absence of parents, this Children's Home provided for the Pennino brothers and kept them united. Without such a facility, it's likely that each child, on their own, would have been bounced from home to home, never having gained a sense of family. The brothers would not have been given the chance at a healthy life and would not have been able to pass their values on to the dozens of children and grandchildren that are and will be the next generations of the Pennino family.

I would personally like to thank you for considering supporting the Pennino Project. Many small hearts will be thanking you too.

In Health,

Robert Pennino (Vic's son)