Members of the Mazzitelli family and City Council make the ceremony official with a ribbon cutting. (Courtesy of Ocean City)
Frank Mazzitelli Jr. recalled that his brother, Tony, began displaying symptoms of muscular dystrophy right around when he was in kindergarten.
By the time Tony hit his teenage years, the muscle-weakening disorder had progressed to the point that it had crippled him.
“He was totally immobile, but when he got in the pool, he would float around. It gave him a lot of freedom,” Frank said of how the water would allow Tony to temporarily escape his physical limitations.
Frank Mazzitelli, his wife, Carol, and other members of the Mazzitelli family fondly remembered Tony during a ceremony in his honor Friday at the Ocean City Aquatic & Fitness Center’s pool.
The pool was named the Tony Mazzitelli Natatorium following Tony’s death from muscular dystrophy in 1976 at the age of 16. His now-deceased parents, Frank “Muzzy” Mazzitelli Sr. and Doris Mazzitelli – generously donated toward the construction of the pool at the Ocean City Community Center in 1979 in their son’s memory.
City officials and the Mazzitelli family gathered Friday to rededicate the Tony Mazzitelli Natatorium following a $792,000 renovation of the pool last year.
“The rededication is a fitting tribute to Tony, and it’s good to see that so many people are enjoying the newly renovated facility,” Mayor Jay Gillian said in a statement.
Tony Mazzitelli's brother, Frank Mazzitelli Jr., and his wife, Carol, are touched by the dedication ceremony.To make the rededication official, the Mazzitellis and city officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Frank Mazzitelli used an oversized pair of scissors to cut the ribbon, while City Council President Pete Madden and fellow Council members Sean Barnes, Terry Crowley, Tony Polcini and Dave Winslow watched.
A smiling portrait of Tony Mazzitelli and a plaque in his honor greet visitors at the entrance to the pool. Following the renovation project last summer, the scoreboard at the pool now bears his name.
During the renovations, the city took the opportunity to replaster the entire pool, install tiled lane markers and redeck the area around the pool with a new soft rubber surface.
As part of the renovation project, a new handicap lift was installed to help swimmers who have disabilities or other physical challenges get in and out of the water.
The pool serves users of all ages and hosts programs for swimming lessons, a youth swim team, the Ocean City High School varsity teams, adult lap swimmers, adults with spinal cord injuries or disease, Special Olympics, senior exercise programs and scuba lessons, among other activities. Members check in to the facility more than 100,000 times each year.
The scoreboard bears the Mazzitelli name again following the completion of a major pool renovation project.Michael Allegretto, aide to Mayor Gillian, praised the Mazzitelli family for its generosity in helping to get the pool built in the first place.
“It was probably one of the most generous community projects in town,” Allegretto said during the ceremony. “It was a great task.”
Frank Mazzitelli said the ceremony made him realize just how important his parents’ financial support of the pool was to the community.
Mazzitelli, 79, and his wife, Carol, 78, live in Egg Harbor Township, but are graduates of Ocean City High School – Frank the Class of 1964 and Carol the Class of 1965.
They were touched by how much the city remembers their family – and Tony – all these years after the pool’s original construction.
The plaque that greets visitors entering the pool notes that Tony was “a very special young man” who will “always be remembered for making people smile with his courage and zest for life and for the many lives he touched.”
“Tony also loved to swim. And it was in the water that he found physical freedom from his disabilities as well as peace of mind,” the plaque says.
A smiling portrait and plaque in honor of Tony Mazzitelli greet visitors at the entrance to the pool.
