Arcada manager gets national honor in N.Y.

Topping an already successful year for Ron Onesti, the Arcada Theatre manager has been honored with a National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations award.

In May, Onesti joined the likes of actor Gary Sinise and Coca-Cola CEO E. Neville Isdell in receiving the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

The award recognizes movers and shakers of diverse backgrounds. It's been presented to six U.S. presidents and several Nobel Prize winners, athletes and artists.

Onesti accepted the award at Ellis Island in a patriotic ceremony that included a fireworks display at the Statue of Liberty.

He said his father, Gaetano, came through Ellis Island from Naples in 1905 to begin a new family, eventually settling on Taylor Street in Chicago's Little Italy, where he was a tailor. Onesti was nearly speechless when he received the award.

"I kept looking around at the other recipients," he said, "and couldn't believe I was one of them."