After high school, Mastrangelo got a job as a salesman for a soda company, Bev Pak. He moved up to become general manager. When the owners were ready to close up shop in 1980, he mortgaged his house, and bought the company.

As Adirondack Beverage, Mastrangelo built the company into a $60 million business over the next 13 years.

Over the past 15 years, Mastrangelo has donated $1.8 million to the Second Chance Education Foundation Scholarship, which provides up to $1,750 to hard-working students who have suffered hardships.
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Thanks to Professor Emeritus Jim Mancuso who submitted this article and opines;

Angelo Mastrangelo has made his mark in the Albany region, and his leadership and contributions have been well recognized.

If our society highly values positive achievement, and "giving back", and if stories such as Angelo Mastrangelo represents the kind of society that we wish to perpetuate, then we should have More "Touched By an Angel" TV series, and NO "Sopranos".
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A CHANCE TO MEET THOSE HE'S HELPED 

Angelo Mastrangelo has donated $1.8 million to college students who suffered hardships

Albany Times Union
By Alan Wechler, 
Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 

The students are single mothers, recovering drug addicts or car-crash survivors. What they had in common as they gathered Monday afternoon at Hudson Valley Community College was Angelo Mastrangelo.

Mastrangelo, former owner of Adirondack Beverage, has donated $1.8 million to the Second Chance Education Foundation Scholarship, which provides up to $1,750 to hard-working students who have suffered hardships.

But Monday was a rare moment for the 62-year-old former executive, now a part-time professor of business management at the State University at Binghamton. For only the second time since the scholarship began 15 years ago, Mastrangelo was meeting the people who have benefited from his largess.

"I'm so impressed with this group," he said after shaking hands with each of the 36 students. "You wonder if you're having an impact. Then you come here and see that you are.

"Mastrangelo is a former Ballston Lake resident who sold Adirondack Beverage in 1993. But his generosity began before he made his fortune. In 1987 he and his wife, Kathleen, committed $200,000 to establish a foundation, in memory of their fathers, to help motivated college students who had overcome hardship.

HVCC was the first school to benefit, with five students qualifying in 1989. The program has since been expanded to other local colleges and to SUNY Binghamton. It has helped support 312 HVCC students, 92 percent of whom graduated. Awards range from $500 to $1,750, depending on the student's grades.

Sharon Veneziale, 41, a Philadelphia native now living in Glens Falls, said she found herself at HVCC after a 15-year battle with alcohol and cocaine. Michelle Tummillo, 29, a dental assistant, had to leave college in 1992 after a serious car accident. It took her 10 years before she decided to go back to the school to become a dental hygienist.

And then there's Angela Wachunas, 28, of Clifton Park, who is a single mother receiving unemployment benefits. Now in her third semester, she hopes to go on to get a bachelor's degree after she graduates. "Without education I've found so many barriers I just couldn't get through," she said.

Mastrangelo himself had plenty of barriers to success. He grew up in Endicott, a suburb of Binghamton. His father, an Italian immigrant, worked as a tailor. Mastrangelo was one of five sons and they all worked. He started his first job, delivering papers, at age 9. Three years later, he was working weekends cleaning a factory. All the money went to his family.

After high school, Mastrangelo got a job as a salesman for a soda company. He moved up through the ranks to become general manager of Bev Pak, a Scotia company. When the owners were ready to close up shop in 1980, he mortgaged his house, got help from the Schenectady County Industrial Development Agency and bought the company.

Changing the name to Adirondack Beverage, Mastrangelo built the company into a $60 million business over the next 13 years.

The idea for the scholarship came after he began to feel guilty about his success and his inability to change the world, Mastrangelo said. He went to see a friend, a priest who is now a monsignor.

"I wanted to sell everything and buy a cabin in the Adirondacks," he said.

His friend told him about Mother Teresa and how her order has helped tens of thousands of the world's most desperate poor.

"She didn't try to change the world," the priest said. "She just tried to change a little corner.

"That's a philosophy Mastrangelo tried to pass on to students Monday afternoon.

"Help us to change the world," he said. "Together we can make a difference." 

'A chance to meet those he's helped' - timesunion.com 
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?
storyID=71355&category=REGION&newsdate=11/12/2002