Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea J. Cabral joined with other state and city elected officials at the 23rd Annual Savin Hill Park Clean Up on Saturday April 28, which featured a memorial and tribute to a man remembered as one of the community’s greatest champions.

Richard P. Pacitti was a Savin Hill resident and Sheriff’s Department Deputy Director of Communications and External Affairs before his untimely passing on January 8, 2006.

Whether working to supply members of the Department’s Community Works Program (CWP) to the Savin Hill Clean Up year after year, coaching neighborhood youth T–ball, softball, and soccer teams, or just lending a hand to a neighbor, Pacitti was the kind of active community member who would often be the first to roll up his sleeves and offer his service for any and all situations that would arise in his beloved Savin Hill.

The CWP program was created for low–risk inmates at the Suffolk County House of Correction who have received vocational training in areas including landscaping and ground maintenance, painting, building maintenance, and carpentry. These inmates are taken into Suffolk County to use the skills they have learned to make improvements in public spaces. The goal of the program is to reduce recidivism by teaching inmates to become employable citizens upon release, while also saving thousands of tax dollars on each project the crews work on.

Following the annual clean up, during which inmates from the CWP assisted in removing leaves, trash and other debris from the park, a ceremony was held to commemorate a sapling Savins tree and plaque in Pacitti’s honor.

“Words don’t quantify what Richie meant to us at the Department and to the community,” said Sheriff Cabral. “It is fitting that we honor him here, in the neighborhood that he cared a great deal about. It’s so beautiful and it symbolizes the type of person he was.”

State Representative Marty Walsh agreed. “This is a great thing symbolically because people can drive or walk by and look in on the tree and watch it as it grows as Richie continues to grow in all of our hearts.”

“His contributions to this community have been so significant,” said Columbia–Savin Hill Civic Association President Deirdre Habershaw. “He’s been great coaching the kids, and he initiated the [CWP] efforts to come and clean up the park years ago.”

In attendance, among the other friends and elected officials, were members of the Pacitti family who offered thanks and gratitude for the honor paid to one of their own.

“I’m overwhelmed,” said Pacitti’s sister Gail Hobin. “This turnout with all his friends and family members is just amazing. I’m so happy that, years from now, his grandchildren will be able to come here and say ‘that’s Papa’s tree.”

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