Bellmore Herald's Person of the Year -- Vincent Proto, There's no bigger booster than 'Mr. Mepham'

If Webster’s Dictionary were to define “unsung hero,” the entry might simply read “Vincent Proto.” The 59-year-old North Bellmore native, a Little League parent volunteer and coach, shies away from the limelight. He wants no credit for all the good work he has done over the past 20 years. But make no mistake –– he deserves far more credit than we can offer in a single story.

In 1991, Proto, a proud Mepham graduate, began volunteering for the Mepham Alumni Association, and in 1993 he started coaching his children’s softball and baseball teams in the North Bellmore-North Merrick Little League, eventually becoming the organization’s director. In 1994 he joined the Mepham Sports Boosters Association when his daughter Catherine reached Mepham High School and got involved in several sports. With his two younger children, Annemarie and Nicholas, also multiple-sport athletes at Mepham, Proto flung himself headfirst into the association, serving as president for three years and treasurer for three years.

“Whatever job needed to be done, I did,” he said. “It was to raise funds and help out.”

Proto has volunteered for the boosters association for nearly two decades, even after his children graduated from Mepham and moved on. Today he remains an adviser to the group’s executive committee while also volunteering for the Mepham Alumni Association, for which he has served as president and is now treasurer.

You might call Proto “Mr. Mepham.” At the Bellmore Herald, we call him the 2011 Person of the Year, in recognition of his extraordinary commitment to his hometown and his alma mater.

Proto was born in Brooklyn and moved to North Bellmore in 1959. He attended Saw Mill Road Elementary School, Jerusalem Avenue Junior High School, which is now a BOCES school, and his beloved Mepham, where he was sports editor of the school newspaper. After graduation, he went on to Hofstra University, where he was an announcer for the football, basketball and wrestling teams and a football statistician. At the same time, he covered high school sports for Newsday. He considered a career in sports journalism, but instead chose to major in business.