Published: May 08, 2008 12:53 pm         

Woman pays forward kindness to son

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Sandra DelPrincipe dreamed that her Pay It Forward entry was the winner.

It was a premonition.

The Norwood Avenue resident received a phone call informing her that her entry had won.

“I can’t believe it!” she said. “I dreamed about this last night.”

Her proposal is to send throat cancer patient Michael Sackin and his wife, Diana, from New Castle to the Dean Martin Festival in Steubenville, Ohio, next month.

Sackin has been a lifelong Dean Martin fan, anda it has been his dream to attend the festival in the town where Martin was born.

The trip will be financed with the $2,000 prize money offered by attorney Dallas W. Hartman, who co-sponsored the Pay It Forward Contest with the New Castle News.

DelPrincipe’s was one of 27 entries.

A board of seven judges — two News staffers and five community members — recognized DelPrincipe’s “Pay It Forward” spirit.

She wanted to pass along the favor done for her son 11 years ago.

DelPrincipe wrote in her entry that her then-9-year-old son had undergone a kidney transplant in 1999, and the Make A Wish Foundation had granted him a trip to Walt Disney World.

DelPrincipe said later that even if she hadn’t won this year’s Pay It Forward contest, she was going to find a way to send the Sackins on their trip anyway.

DelPrincipe volunteers for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery. She met the Sackins while driving them to medical appointments. She felt that because of his plight, he deserved the award.

She will make all the travel arrangements. The $2,000 prize money must be used entirely for DelPrincipe’s plan of sending the Sackins to the festival, which is June 12, 13 and 14. Their wedding anniversary is June 15.

The trip will include limousine transportation, a three-night hotel stay, gold seating for the June 14 show and meals.

The Pay It Forward contest, undertaken separately by about 70 newspapers statewide, was initiated this year by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

Local entries came from schools, individuals, clubs and organizations looking to do something good for other people or their communities.

“It just seems like a good idea,” Hartman said about why he had agreed to sponsor the first contest. “It’s an excellent concept.”

He said that, following the example of a friend, he wakes up every day and tries to do something good for someone he doesn’t know.

“It’s how you practice your faith and how you try to live,” he said, adding, “Hopefully more people will start doing that every day.”



Debbie Wachter Morris writes for the New Castle (Pa.) News.