Lariccias save Rayen mural

YOUNGSTOWN — The effort to save a 65-foot mural in The Rayen School has drawn the attention of perhaps the area’s best-known philanthropist.

Tony Lariccia, of Boardman, who recently was in the headlines for donating $4 million to Youngstown State University’s Centennial Capital Campaign, said Friday that he and his wife, Mary, will donate $25,000 to the mural project.

That should be enough to save the mural and, it is hoped, prompt other donors to come forward to help save a smaller mural at Woodrow Wilson High School in the city, Lariccia said.

Both Rayen and Wilson are slated for demolition, and both will be replaced with middle schools.

Harry Mays, of Boardman, is spearheading the effort to save the Rayen mural, which depicts 100 years of history of the school and Youngstown.

He recently told the Youngstown Board of Education that the project should cost between $20,000 and $25,000, and that he was asking Rayen alumni and area institutions to underwrite the cost.

The drive might draw enough money to help save the Wilson mural as well, he told the board.

The Lariccias have given away about $10 million in recent years to various area charitable, educational and religious organizations.

Lariccia said he felt compelled to act to help save the murals after reading a story about the effort in Friday’s Vindicator.

He was impressed with Mays’ efforts.

Lariccia said his family’s contribution is being made to honor two outstanding Rayen graduates: Dominic Rosselli and Charles Sammarone.

Rosselli, 91, was an outstanding athlete at Rayen, graduating in the late 1930s, and he went on to Geneva College, then came back to Youngstown, where he worked as a coach in basketball, baseball and football at YSU for 42 years, Lariccia said.

Sammarone was an outstanding football player for the Rayen Tigers. He graduated around 1960, Lariccia said. Sammarone is president of Youngstown City Council.