Islanders come together to give disabled Rosebank girl early holiday present – SILive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- No one likes when the power goes out, but for at least one Staten Island teen a power outage can be life-shattering.

Alexia Trimarchi, of Rosebank, lives with a severe case of cerebral palsy, needing a medical bed, an electronic lift, and an oxygen tank that all require electricity around the clock.

When the familys home lost power for a week during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the 19-year-old needed to live with a family friend for a week that just happened to have a hospital bed in his home.

Id been thinking about this for awhile since Sandy. We had seven days with no electricity, Alexias father Joe said. If the electricity goes out what do we do with Alexia?

A glaring need for a full-home generator presented itself, and recently the Trimarchi family saved up enough money to buy one.

They reached out to a family friend, Gus DiLeo, who had helped the family in the past when they were adding an extension to their home that became Alexias bedroom.

Instead of having the Trimarchi family pay for either the generator or the installation, DiLeo organized donors and a pair of contractor friends -- John Steckman and Vito Pombano -- who own JSC Construction.

As soon as they met the family, their response was well do our end of the job for free, just get the generator,' DiLeo said of the contractors. So, I called a bunch of friends and business associates on Staten Island and everyone was more than willing to contribute.

The group organized funds from local residents and businesses like Frank Oswald, Beyar Market, South Shore Kiwanis Club, Kettle Black and HoBrah Restaurants, MET Food, Buonocore Jewlers, and Bianco Landscaping.

They then enlisted the help of local businesses -- Manhattan Electrical Supply, ThinkDESIGN Architecture, Richmond Elevator, Liami Masonry, Chris Reno, and Fine Plumbing -- that offered their supplies and services free of charge.

The generator is shown outside the Trimarchi family's Rosebank home on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019. (Courtesy: Gus DiLeo)

The work was done the day before Thanksgiving, and now the familys home is fully equipped with a backup generator. In the case of another blackout, the family wont need to worry about what to do with Alexia.

Thank God now the house is equipped to a generator," Joe Trimarchi said. If the electric goes out, I wont have to move somewhere, well be OK. Thank God for good people in the world.

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Islanders come together to give disabled Rosebank girl early holiday present - SILive.com