DANBURY, CONN. — When the Caraluzzi family celebrated the 50th anniversary in 1999 of the opening by patriarch Anthony Caraluzzi Sr. of his first grocery store in the Greater Danbury area, they did what came naturally — sharing their good fortune with the community that has supported the Caraluzzis loyally over more than half a century.

The founder’s son Anthony Caraluzzi Jr., who joined the business in 1969, succeeded his father as president of Bethel-based Caraluzzi’s Markets and, with his wife Roberta, watched generations of teen-aged employees grow up working at their supermarket to finance their education. In 1999, the family discovered the perfect match for their community-minded anniversary gift in the creation of a scholarship program dedicated to helping students begin and continue their studies at Western Connecticut State University.

WestConn will recognize Tony and Roberta Caraluzzi for their family’s contributions to the university and Greater Danbury communities as the honorees at the 22nd annual University Ball on May 3. This year’s Ball theme, “Escape to Tuscany,” will highlight an evening program of fine dining, dancing and a silent auction to raise academic enrichment and scholarship funds for the WCSU Foundation. Tony Caraluzzi Jr. serves as a member of the WCSU Foundation Board.

“Over the years, the generosity and initiative of the Caraluzzi family have made it possible for dozens of students to attend WestConn,” WCSU President James W. Schmotter observed. “In so doing, they have shared the benefits of their business success with the Bethel and Greater Danbury communities.

“They are an exemplar of corporate social responsibility, and we’re proud that our university has been a partner in their philanthropy,” Schmotter said. “I’m simply delighted that we are honoring Tony and Bert at this year’s University Ball.”

The seed that the Caraluzzi family planted a decade ago with their initial donation of $100,000 to found the Caraluzzi Scholarship Endowment has grown into a robust fund with resources totaling approximately $600,000. Grants awarded since 2001 have helped 60 undergraduate students to meet their educational costs at WestConn. 

“We were looking for areas where we felt we could make a commitment to the youth of our community,” Tony Caraluzzi recalled during a recent interview. “My parents (Anthony Caraluzzi Sr. and his wife Julia) previously set up scholarship funds at Bethel and Immaculate high schools during the 1980s, and we have always had an affinity for youth and education because we employ so many men and women of high school and college age. We have a manager today who worked his way through high school and WestConn, and stories of hard-working, conscientious kids who work for their education are plentiful in our organization.”

The family established the scholarship fund to offer grants to incoming WestConn freshmen who are graduates of Bethel High School and Immaculate High School in Danbury, and to make continuing scholarship support available to juniors and seniors in the university’s Ancell School of Business. Caraluzzi noted local businesses serve their own interest when they invest in students who pursue their studies at WestConn.

“I’ve often said that WestConn is a little gem in the Danbury area, and many of its graduates tend to stay in the area,” he said. “So by supporting WestConn, we’re cultivating future employees for our businesses. This school is up to date in all facets of education, and teaches its students ethical business practices. In today’s environment, businesses are looking to recruit people who can bring skills like these to the table.”

In addition to family members’ generous individual support for the scholarship fund, Tony Caraluzzi Jr. has worked since 1999 with WestConn’s Office of Institutional Advancement to organize the annual Holiday Wine Tasting to raise funds on an ongoing basis to replenish and build the endowment. The popular event has drawn as many as 250 guests each November to a variety of WestConn venues, including Warner Hall and the Grand Ballroom of the Westside Campus Center, to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and dozens of fine vintages supplied by distributors of Caraluzzi’s Nutmeg Liquors of Bethel.

Caraluzzi noted the wine tastings have remained true to his vision of staging an enjoyable social gathering kicking off the holiday season that brings leaders of the Greater Danbury business and civic community to WestConn to learn more about the institution from the university’s administrators and faculty.

“Even though WestConn is right in our backyard, there are a lot of professionals in our area who don’t know a whole lot about it, so we came up with the idea of a wine tasting,” he said. “It has grown over the years, yet it remains on a manageable scale — our emphasis is on quality, not quantity.”

Now “semi-retired” after 39 years in the family business, Tony Caraluzzi Jr. has passed daily operational responsibilities as president and chief executive officer to his son Mark, but remains involved in policy and planning as the company board chairman. During his stewardship, Caraluzzi’s Markets’ anchor store in Bethel more than doubled in size with significant renovations in display space, products and services, and the company opened Nutmeg Liquors in 1997 and a second supermarket in 2003 in the Georgetown section of Wilton. Caraluzzi’s Markets recently announced plans to introduce a third 35,000-square-foot supermarket in Newtown, with the store’s opening targeted for fall 2008. Tony Caraluzzi noted the company plans to recruit staff at the annual Career Fair on April 2 sponsored by the WestConn Career Development Center.

“We’ll be looking for more young men and women of WestConn to work at our new market,” Tony said. “As WestConn is growing, we’re growing as well. I see a lot of parallels between our business and the university.”

One of those parallels, he noted, is the university’s emphasis on quality instruction, which he compared to his family’s commitment to personalized customer service.

“When I talk to employees who have attended WestConn, they praise the faculty for their devotion and their teaching relationship with students,” he said. “WestConn’s faculty really cares — it’s not a big ‘chain store’ university. I feel at home there.”

The 2008 University Ball will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, in the Feldman Arena of the O’Neill Convocation Center on the university’s Westside campus, Lake Avenue Extension in Danbury. The honorary chair for this year’s black-tie event is Wayne Shepperd, director of economic development for the city of Danbury.

“It’s an event that brings together leaders of the business, government and academic communities, all there to have a great time,” Caraluzzi observed. “I am honored to be in the presence of those who have gone before me in this place. It’s the highest award I have attained.”

For more information about the Ball, call the Office of Institutional Advancement at (203) 837-8279.