Ambassadors pick Parents of the Year

The winners of the Parent of the Year awards were announced at the Parents’ Weekend football game on Saturday. The award was sponsored by the Student Ambassadors.

Joe and JoAnne Antinarella, the winners, were nominated by their twin daughters, seniors Casey and Cara Antinarella.

"We nominated our parents because we didn’t feel like we told them enough how great they were," Casey said. "In the past five years, they have put both of us through school,m as well as our older brother, Justin, who graduated from JMU in May."

Cara said, "I called Casey from campus when I found out and we just couldn’t believe we actually won. We were both very excited."

Casey said, "We called our parents […] and told them they had won [the Parent of the Year contest]. They said, ‘Who did […] we did?’ They were very surprised."

The Parent of the Year award is given to an outstanding parent in the JMU community every year, according to junior Jake Miller, co-head of the 2004 parent of the year committee, who helped coordinate the event.

"All Student Ambassadors are invited to read and score applications," Miller said. "Every application was read several times, and the highest-scored application won.

"We received about 50 applications, and they were all phenomenal," Miller added.
Cara said, "We know that there are so many parents at JMU that deserve this award. We are honored that our parents get to represent all the supportive parents at JMU."