BOARDMAN Resident grants school's wish

A Steinway piano was delivered Monday to the high school auditorium.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Ask and you shall receive.
Boardman schools Superintendent Don Dailey asked for a new grand piano at the high school. The next day he received a $75,000 check from township resident Anthony Lariccia to purchase the instrument.
Emily Slaven, Boardman High School's choral music director, said plans to buy a piano for the new high school auditorium started several weeks ago when she and other music instructors decided it was time to do away with the 32-year-old piano being used.
Slaven traveled to Akron and spotted the perfect Steinway concert grand piano. Next, she spotted the $75,000 price tag and the fund raising began. School organizations started collecting grocery store receipts and took part in other forms of fund raising.
Merry Christmas: Dailey announced the efforts at the winter concert for the choral music department -- and that announcement reached the ears of Lariccia. The next day Lariccia called Slaven and said he had a Christmas gift for the school and had already forwarded a check for the full price of the piano to the Akron company.
"I am hardly ever speechless, but I was at a loss for words that someone would come forward and show so much support for the young people of this school as performers," she said.
The piano was delivered and installed Monday. Slaven was first to touch the instrument and the first to play a note. She said it will be a great benefit to the school.
"When you have a nice concert hall this is something that is essential. We do a minimum of five concerts a year, and it will be absolutely fabulous to have this," she said.
Slaven said the piano also will be beneficial to the community for nonschool activities in the auditorium.
Glad to help: Lariccia said the donation is a continuing effort by he and his wife, Mary, to give back to the community. He said the piano was essential for an auditorium such as the one in the high school -- an auditorium to which he donated $250,000 during the building phase.
"My wife and I have found great pleasure in doing this type of what we see not as work but pleasure," he said.
Lariccia has been a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch for 31 years. He has two daughters, Natalie, a Boardman High School graduate, and Dana, who attends the school.
Lariccia has donated to many other community projects. He said the tragic loss of a newborn child in 1984 is when he and his wife truly learned the joys of giving. Now, he said, community involvement is a means of celebrating God's goodness in helping his family get through tough situations such as the loss of his son and rough times in business.
jgoodwin@vindy.com