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Lawrence Auriana, Joseph Cerrell & Louis Freeh To Receive Ellis Island Medals of Honor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:   Elissa Ruffino (NIAF) 202/939-3106 or elissa@niaf.org


**Three National Italian American Foundation Leaders to be Honored**

(WASHINGTON, DC – April 8, 2002), Lawrence Auriana, founder & portfolio co-manager of Federated Kaufmann Fund in New York City, Joseph R. Cerrell, founder, chairman and CEO of Cerrell Associates in Los Angeles, CA, and Louis J. Freeh, senior vice chairman, administration & legal affairs of MBNA America, Inc. in Wilmington, DE, will receive the Ellis Island Medals of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, Inc. (NECO) at an awards gala, Saturday evening, May 11 at 6 PM on Ellis Island. All three recipients serve on the NIAF Board of Directors with Joseph R. Cerrell as president.

“By honoring these three prominent Italian Americans, we recognize all those people who share their heritage and acknowledge the contributions, which have been made to our great nation,” said Frank J. Guarini, NIAF chairman and NECO honorary chairperson.

NECO recognizes distinguished Americans who have made significant contributions to our nation’s heritage with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The award was created in 1986 to honor the many ancestral groups who through struggle, sacrifice and success, helped build this great nation. Four United States Presidents, several Senators and Congressmen and Nobel Prize winners are among the remarkable group of individuals to receive the Ellis Island Medals of Honor for their outstanding contributions to America.

The Ellis Island Medals of Honor recipients’ names are listed in The Congressional Record.