The following comments were given by former Maplewood Mayor and current Township Committee member Victor DeLuca upon accepting his Maplewood Rotary Citizenship Award at the Maplewood Country Club on April 4, 2025:
I want to express my deepest appreciation to the Maplewood Rotary Club for selecting me for the 2025 Citizenship Award. Actually, it’s the 2020 award plus five. But no worries, I’m used to waiting. I’ve been working on completion of the new library for almost as long.
Thanks to all of you for attending. I’m happy to be joined by my family, my Maplewood Township family, my Hilton neighborhood family and all of you. I am blessed to have you as a part of my life.
But there is one person who really deserves an award, my wife Janey. Please thank her for sharing me with you for all these years.
Janey and Vic DeLuca
I am truly honored to be chosen tonight. I have enjoyed what I do and the accomplished I’ve made. I’ve been privileged to serve, earning the trust and votes of Maplewoodians for over two dozen years. I believe that I have made a difference and that makes me very happy.
But I did not do this alone. I want to recognize all of you for your leadership in our community. Things get done by those who show up.
Teddy Roosevelt said it best in April of 1910, 115 years ago. He said, and paraphrasing some, “It is not the critic who counts; not the person who points out how another stumbles or claims it could have been done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly. It is the person who actually strives to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends time on a worthy cause; who at the best knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if one fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
Janey and Vic DeLuca, surrounded by DeLuca’s siblings and sister-in-law.
Tonight, I stand with the giants of Maplewood. Those of you in the arena every day. Those believing that things can be better and we can get there together. Those of you who are brave and selfless and care about each other. Those who are motivated by a larger cause of community and good citizenship.
Thank you Maplewood Rotary for what you do for us. For your continued support of our community. For your generosity and your efforts to make life better for all.
