“I’ve heard it from my father all of my life – you do what you have to do in order to survive. I believe that mindset is built into Italian heritage.”
That quote is a great example of where Bob Contraguerro Jr. comes from, and it represents why he’ll be honored this week as the Italian-American of the Year by the Undo’s Upper Ohio Valley Italian Festival. The annual banquet is tomorrow evening at Undo’s West in St. Clairsville, and then the festival will kick off Friday at noon.
The award recognizes individuals who demonstrate leadership, service, and a deep commitment to their heritage and community. Bob Sr., in fact, was named the organization’s Italian American of the Year in 2012.
“It’s a terrific honor for both of us because there are not too many father-sons to receive this award in the history of the Italian Festival,” Contraguerro said. “I’m very proud to be following in my father’s footsteps, and I’m really looking forward to a great weekend with him and my entire family.
“Obviously, I’ve been around my father my entire life, but I’ve also worked with him during my entire professional career and I’m very proud of that fact, too. We pretty much go step-in-step with each other, and his beliefs and my beliefs align very well. That includes how we feel about our community,” he explained. “It’s important to both of us to do what we can do when it comes to the children and the schools in our community. It all started with him, and it will continue.”
The story about how Bob Sr. started the family business has a very sad beginning – the death of his father when he was 15 years old – but the success and growth since 1977 proves his hard work paid off. While Panhandle is headquartered in Wheeling, the company also operates locations in Pittsburgh, Charleston, Morgantown, and Sarasota, Fla., and the company’s presence in the community is unmatched.
“This community has been good to us over the years, and we live here, and we’ve all grown up here, too,” Contraguerro said. “We’re also raising our families here, and our relatives are here, too, and that’s something that doesn’t happen for a lot of families in this area. So, it means a lot to us because we’re all here growing up in this community.
“As we’ve expanded our business into the Morgantown, Pittsburgh, Charleston, and Sarasota, Florida, areas, we have all made that choice to remain here in Wheeling so, we like to do whatever we can do to support Wheeling because we want to see it thrive. We want to see it grow. We want to see events happening in Wheeling. That’s why you see our name on a lot of things. We can’t support everything, but we believe you have to do what you can for your community.”
Positive Impacts
“I’ve always heard that a lot of Italian heritage is about hard work, and I think that came into play when my father was building the business.”
The “Founder’s Story” on the website for Panhandle Cleaning & Restoration explains how he convinced the administration at Central Catholic High School to hire him as the janitor to help pay for his tuition, and it also explains how he worked his way into a bank loan that allowed him to begin his first carpet cleaning service to go along with floor care, tile work, and janitorial services.
“All the way back in 1977 when he started this company, it was him in a vehicle and he went out and knocked door to door,” Contraguerro proudly reviewed. “It was about hard work then; it’s about hard work now. There’s no magic bullet other than outworking everybody else, and that’s what he always said.
“I remember him telling me all of the time, ‘When I was delivering papers, I had 400 paper customers, and then the newspaper (manager) told me I couldn’t have any more customers because they didn’t believe I could deliver any more papers.’ But then he did and proved them wrong,” he said. “We still do those kinds of things today, and we’ve always been able to do whatever we’re asked to do because of that mindset.”
But being in the disaster business can make for difficult days.
“The business is chaotic most of the time because of what we deal with every day, and you can only plan for as much as you can in this business,” Contraguerro said. “But this business is really an unplanned business because it’s always about whatever the next phone call is about. It’s about when the next storm happens or when something unexpected takes place at home or at your business.
“What you have to do is plan all the things you do know,” he said. “That way, the scheduled work is completed while knowing there’s always going to be something that’s going to come up that’s going to disrupt that plan. But you can’t let that upset the cart. You have to be able to deal with that. That’s the restoration business, and we do our best for our customers.”
And for their community, and the recent Party on the Plaza fundraiser two weeks ago is a great example the Contraguerro family’s contributions. The local tent of the Circus Saints & Sinners non-profit partners with Panhandle Cleaning every July to raise funds for the WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital in Morgantown, and for the new pediatric wing at Wheeling Hospital.
“A lot of things we do to support our community, you see a focus on children because they truly are the future,” Contraguerro said. “That’s why you’ll see us at YMCA, you’ll see us at Children’s Hospital, and you’ll see us on every Little League ballfield that you drive by. That comes from Dad because he coached us all as kids and he knows how important those sports are for local kids.
“So, if we can help with something connected to children, that’s number one; we start with that,” he continued. “That support helps build the community, and it lets local residents know we’re here for more reasons than to make money. We’re here to be a community member because that’s very important to everyone here.”
The Food & The Fun
“I have always loved Italian food, and that’s probably a bad thing for me because I could eat pasta every day.”
While the annual Undo’s Italian Festival features a variety of vendor foods, the Little Italy section always offers Italian cuisine, and, of course, the Sons of Italy from Bellaire will serve their ultra-popular Italian Sausage sandwiches.
And Bob Jr. might be in a line or two this weekend.
“The festival has a great history here in Wheeling, and one of my favorite things about it has always been all of the different kinds of food you can find,” Contraguerro said. “Of course, I have to steer away from a lot of it, but I love all of the Italian foods. We’ve never been to Italy and that is absolutely something I’d like to do in the future.
“When I find out someone who has been to Italy, I always ask them a ton of questions because I’m so curious about not only seeing all of the beauty, but mostly because of all of the food,” he said. “I want to go to Italy and try all of the food so I can compare it to what we here in our country. I have heard there are differences, and I want to enjoy it as much as I can.”
The same goes for tomorrow evening’s banquet and during this weekend’s festival.
“My Italian heritage has always been very important to me, and it’s meant a lot to our family, too,” Contraguerro said. “This weekend is going to mean a lot to us, too, because it’s an incredible feeling to be recognized for loving where you live and doing things to help it be even better.
“It’s a tremendous honor and very humbling,” he added. “I’m looking forward to making a lot of memories this weekend.”
