Zambito’s commitment to youth earns Light of the Valley honor
Trending
Before Pastor Tim Seidler of The Experience Church offered the closing prayer at Wednesday’s Light of the Valley luncheon, he had to tell one more story about its honoree, Wheeling dentist Dr. Ricardo Zambito.
It was the night of Good Friday during the COVID-19 pandemic and Seidler would broadcast the church’s Easter message to his congregation still stuck at home. He was sitting in his living room and was biting his nails. He heard a crack and thought it was his nail. It was his tooth. He showed his wife and asked if it looked bad. She screamed.
“I looked in the mirror and it was the stereotypical West Virginia smile,” he said. “Half my tooth was gone.”
So he called his cousin, who worked for Zambito. He admits it was sort of a Hail Mary. Zambito wasn’t his dentist and it was 9:30 p.m. on Friday.
“She calls me back in five minutes,” he said. “She said, ‘Dr. Z said to meet him at his office in 15 minutes.'”
That is Zambito’s commitment to his community, Seidler said. And his commitment to the youth of his community is what earned him the 2026 Dr. Lee Jones Patron of Youth Award, which Zambito humbly accepted Wednesday at Wheeling Park’s White Palace.
The Patron of Youth Award is given annually by the Wheeling YMCA to someone who goes above and beyond in caring for and about the Ohio Valley’s youth. Previous winners include Gene Ammirante, Bishop Darrell Cummings, Lisa Allen and Bob Nutting.
In a tribute video shown during the ceremony, Zambito’s family and friends talked about his selflessness and his eagerness to help anyone at any time.
“I know if any of his buddies called, no matter what the situation was, unless he was with his grandkids, he’d drop it in a heartbeat,” son Ricci Zambito said.
“Will you sponsor our baseball program? Will you sponsor this? Will you sponsor that? The answer is always yes,” wife Cheryl Zambito said. “So he does. He never turns anybody down.”
Zambito said that devotion to others is based in his Christian faith and was built in part at the YMCA. After all, he said, those letters stand for Young Men’s Christian Association. He remembers going to the downtown Wheeling YMCA as a boy with his father and his friends and their fathers.
“We caused all kinds of problems for them because we were just little kids, and they knew that and they loved it,” he said. “But what’s neat about that is all of us joined together and it created memories forever.
“When you do something like that, when you join as a team, as a community and work toward something, that’s kind of what we all did at the Y,” he added.
Zambito said he loves and appreciates the YMCA because it helps people become healthy, not just physically healthy but spiritually healthy.
“When I think of the Light of the Valley, I have to relate it to the light of Jesus Christ,” he said. “Because God tells us in his Word that Jesus Christ is the light. That’s why I’m so honored for this award, and I can see all of you here being the light for your families, your friends, your coworkers and your circle of influences.
“So if we can portray love and joy, and peace and patience, and goodness and kindness and faithfulness and self-control as a team, we could just light up this Ohio Valley, right?”
At the end of the luncheon, the Wheeling YMCA was presented a check for $69,900 in donations.
The luncheon also featured guest speaker Tony Chiazza, a Wheeling native who has become one of the most prominent college basketball officials in the country. The supervisor of officials for both the Mountain East Conference and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, Chiazza has officiated some of the biggest games in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East Conference, Big 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference. He also has worked 11 consecutive NCAA men’s basketball tournaments.
Chiazza told the crowd at the White Palace that his officiating journey actually started at the Wheeling YMCA.
“As I got into middle school, I started volunteering at the Y,” he said. “We did whatever was needed, from keeping score at games to setting up and tearing down for events.”
The Y always needed referees, he said, but he and his friends would try to avoid that job to dodge the overzealous parents. But right before he attended Marshall University, a former Y employee suggested he get certified to officiate.
“What I didn’t know was that advice was going to change my life,” he said.
When he graduated from Marshall, his first job was as the youth program director at the Wheeling YMCA.
“It was a full circle moment,” Chiazza said. “The YMCA wasn’t just the place where I grew up. The YMCA helped launch my career.”