Danbury PAL To Honor 4 Local Heroes At 3rd Annual Spotlight Breakfast

**News Release Submitted by Danbury Police Activities League**

April 17, 2023

On Friday, April 21st the Danbury PAL will celebrate its 3rd Annual Spotlight Breakfast honoring four Danbury community leaders. This year’s Spotlight honorees are Danbury PAL Wrestling icons Mark & Nancy Cammisa who have been valuable assets to the Danbury PAL wrestling program for over 20 years. Since 2000, Mark & Nancy have coached, mentored and supported the program in every way. Mark thrived as a head coach while Nancy was known as the "team mom". Mark currently serves on the Danbury Youth Wrestling Association as a board member and is the treasurer and board member for USA Wrestling, CT. Nancy has been elected to the Danbury City council four times as the 7th Ward councilperson. She also serves as treasurer and board member for Danbury Youth Wrestling Association as well as Board Secretary for USA Wrestling, CT. They now serve as advisors for the coaches and administrators and both are still involved in organizing and running many wrestling tournaments at PAL. The Cammisas have also been huge donors of the PAL in terms of volunteering and philanthropy.

The other spotlight honorees are Joyce Robbins and Joann Tatarzycki of the Danbury PAL Cheer Program. The Cheer program began in 2004 as a middle school competition team when Danbury middle schools discontinued its sports programs. The program has become highly successful and in turn, the Danbury High School Cheer program has enjoyed success due to the PAL program becoming a feeder program! The top-notch coaching staff consists of. . Joyce Robbins, Joann Tatarzycki, Samantha Robbins, Brianne Shepard & Sabrina Bahia. Thanks to their stewardship, the Danbury PAL Cheer program is the current - 3 years running - FCIAC league middle school champions! As per Tatarczycki & Robbins. . . "Almost 100% of our alumni go on to cheer for our high school teams and have won numerous league and state championships. Last year 9 of our alumni cheered for DHS where they won the state title with the highest score in the history of the state championships. Many then go on to cheer in college for highly successful programs."

Danbury PAL Executive Director, Vince Jackson adds “Mark & Nancy Cammisa have been true to the PAL in every way. Their commitment and generosity have allowed several PAL programs to thrive.” Board of Directors President, Chad Bock added “The PAL Board is proud of the outstanding work Joyce and Joanne have demonstrated in turning Danbury Cheer into a Statewide powerhouse.” We are fortunate to have them as part of the Danbury PAL family.”

The Danbury PAL Spotlight Breakfast began in 2019 to “Spotlight” awardees who have worked endlessly to make our organization what it is today. Awardees are not only recognized during the annual breakfast, but they are inducted into our Danbury PAL Hall of Fame. The event which will be held at Anthony’s Lake Club marks the 3rd annual Spotlight Awards Breakfast. The inaugural Breakfast was held in 2019 where Danbury coaching royalty Bob Guerrera and Reggie Moore were awardees The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.