Sal Conforto

Mr. Conforto says he is driven by a personal commitment to give back to the Bronx and his Morris Park community, leaving both a better place than when he first got there almost 40 years ago. Mr. Conforto emigrated from Italy when he was 13years old and was later drafted into the U.S. Army.

After his 22 year old daughter, Maryann, passed away from a brain aneurysm in 1990, Mr. Conforto began dedicating himself to serving his community, saying “Ever since that day, I have tried to do good works in my daughter’s memory.”

Mr. Conforto’s good works include four years as treasurer of the Morris Park Community Association, frequently visiting Calvary Hospital for patient birthdays with the Morris Park Kiwanis, serving as legal guardian to an incapacitated neighbor and co-founding the Americans Civics Institute, which holds an ongoing food drive for local food pantries and those in need and provides educational programming to local youth.

Mr. Conforto is dedicated to serving the borough where he and his wife, Sun Hee, raised their four children, even though his travels take him to other places, including South Korea, where his wife was born.

As treasurer of the MPCA, Mr. Conforto has saved the organization thousands of dollars by purchasing, rather than renting, communications equipment used by the MPCA community patrol and the Bronx Columbus Day Parade. He was also involved with helping an incapacitated man on Pierce Avenue who was duped into selling a house he owned for $10 in 2006. It took three years, but the house was returned in 2009, as Mr. Conforto rallied community support for the legal fight.

Mr. Conforto is one of the organizers of a Thanksgiving turkey and food drive by the Morris Park Kiwanis at St. Clare’s; he sits on the Albert Einstein College of Medicine neighborhood advisory board and is a member of Community Board.