Community

Weirton Lions honor Nick Tranto with first ‘Heart of a Lion’ award

WEIRTON -- The Weirton Lions Club honored Nick Tranto of Weirton with its first "Heart of a Lion" award during a recent dinner held at Giovanni's Restaurant.

The Heart of a Lion was created to honor an individual (non-Lion) in the community who provides "above-and-beyond" service to his or her community, church and family. In addition to receiving a plaque, Tranto was presented a check for a $100 donation to a charity of his choice -- in this case the Brooke-Hancock Salvation Army. Tranto presented the check to Capt. Gene Hunt of the Salvation Army, who was in attendance at the dinner.

Weirton Mayor Harold "Bubba" Miller presented Tranto with a certificate of appreciation from the city of Weirton for all his service.

Among those attending were Tranto's wife and daughter, Pearl and Dr. Maria Tranto, respectively; Gary Mastromichalis, Nick Proakis and Dean Harris from AHEPA; Darlene Ballas from All Saints Greek Orthodox Church; Michael Smith and Celeste McCloud from Brooke Place/Family Connections; representatives of Lions clubs in Weirton, New Cumberland, Wheeling Island and Moundsville.

In his acceptance remarks, Tranto stressed the importance of service -- and leaving a legacy of service -- and expressed admiration for the kindness of the people of Weirton.

Tranto and his wife recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and in addition to their daughter and son-in-law, Dr. George Dimitriou, have two grandchildren, Peri, a junior at Duquesne University, majoring in pre-med, and Niko, a senior at Weir High School who will begin studies in finance this fall at Duquesne University.

The couple are life members of All Saints Greek Orthodox Church and have been active stewards and leaders of their church community for more 50 years. They are first-generation Greek Americans, "very proud of their immigrant parents' roots, culture and heritage. Most important is they value service to their community through their efforts in multiple charitable organizations," the Lions noted in their awards presentation.

Tranto graduated from Youngstown State University in 1972 with a degree in business administration with majors in industrial management, accounting and finance. Upon graduation, he joined the Army Reserves and served from 1972-78 with the 99th ARCOM, 463rd Combat Engineers, Co. B in Weirton. In 2006, he earned a graduate certificate in forensic accounting and fraud investigation from West Virginia University School of Business and Economics.

He was employed by the Internal Revenue Service for 36 years, as an IRS agent, as a junior and senior tax audit manager and a federal grand jury manager in Pittsburgh for 25 years, then was promoted to the IRS' national office in Washington, D.C., for another 11 years where he was a senior tax policy manager, overseeing $55 billion of excise tax trust funds allocated to federal roads, highways, airports and waterways.

After retiring in 2009, he started a private excise tax consulting firm specializing in tax representation, pre-litigation and IRS appellate cases. In 2017 he retired after 43 years in the tax business.

Tranto is a 50-year member of All Saints and a 50-year member of the Order of AHEPA. In 2022, he was named Ahepan of the Year by his local fraternal chapter.

In 2020, he was selected as an Archon of the Order of St. Andrew, the highest honor for a lay person in the Greek Orthodox Church. That same year, he was appointed as a regional commander of the Archons of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh. In October 2022 Tranto was named as chair of the Archon National Youth Committee to further Orthodox Christian education of youth and young adults.

Tranto's church, civic and organizational volunteerism spans decades.

In the early 1980s, Tranto began his service to the church as a parish council member and began to serve on the Greek festival committee. His first job was to make "Greek Donuts" as taught to him by Nick Monezis of Royal Pastry Bakery in downtown Weirton.

For the past 15 years he has been the chair and co-chair of the Weirton Greek Festival and "chief cook and bottle washer" and baker's helper, assisting the men and women of All Saints as they estimate they have served an average of 8,000 patrons per year and generated more than $1.4 million in gross receipts under his chairmanship.

Tranto has served as the vice president and president of his Parish Council since 2013 having, termed out in 2022. Under his leadership All Saints and AHEPA have expanded outreach to numerous organizations.

That includes 11 years co-chairing and assisting AHEPA with the annual Thanksgiving dinner for the Weirton Christian Center, serving 160 dinners to children and their families, and 15 years cooking for the annual Weirton Ministerial Association Thanksgiving dinner with 250 takeout meals to seniors and shut-ins and another 250 hot meals served at the Weirton Senior Center each year.

In 2019 during the midst of the pandemic and the shutdown of all organized efforts to host a Thanksgiving dinner, the city of Weirton called upon Tranto and All Saints, asking if the Greek church could cook for all the city's high-rises. Without hesitation, Tranto activated his church team to cook, and the Salvation Army delivered 300 hot meals to high-rise residents on Thanksgiving Day.

During the major power outage in 2021, which shut down most of the city and Weirton Heights during the winter for several days, Tranto was asked if All Saints could prepare hot meals for 60 people at the Millsop Community Center, which was being used as a warming center. "The call came in at 3:30 p.m. and by 5:45 p.m. city workers were loading their trucks with pans of pasta, gyro sandwiches and hot vegetables cooked at All Saints since the church had heat and power," it was noted.

Tranto's wife serves as president of the Ladies Philoptochos Society of All Saints which has elevated the level of giving, donating more than $25,000 to local charities in the past 18 months from proceeds from bake sales, Greek twist cookies, baklava and Easter bread. Pearl's local chapter received the prestigious Metropolis Agape Award in 2022 recognized as the most philanthropic chapter of all 48 churches in the Diocese.

In March of 2022, the Trantos co-chaired a local Ukrainian War relief effort "Pasta and Prayer" luncheon at All Saints, raising more than $6,200 in one afternoon and attended by more than 100 parishioners and dignitaries. It featured a recent immigrant Ukrainian couple and their children who spoke about the horrors of the war and the effects on their relatives back in the Ukraine.

In September 2022, Tranto was asked to "manage the kitchen" at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Pittsburgh where the International Orthodox Christian Charities held a Ukrainian War Relief fundraising dinner serving 475 people and raising more than $67,000.

For 15 years, Tranto has directed a percent of All Saints festival profits to be donated to various organizations that provide vital services to the community. They include the Weirton Christian Center, Brooke Place Family Connections, the Community Breadbasket, Brooke-Hancock Salvation, city of Weirton K-9 corps, Weirton Police Department, Weirton Fire Department, Friendship Room of Steubenville, Table of Hope in Weirton, Evgenia's House of Hope

He has been involved in hosting, cooking and donating to the annual Salvation Army Volunteer Appreciation Dinner; instituting an All-Saints Benevolent Fund assisting parishioners who have struggled with large medical bills and funeral expenses; serving as an active member of the AHEPA No. 103 Men's Lodge board of governors; contributing to the annual pancake breakfast and steak fry that benefits local charities.