JOHN VINCENT KENNY

(Jersey City, 6 aprile 1893 - 2 giugno 1975)

Sindaco di Jersey City e cittadino onorario di Capracotta

​

A $20,000 snow plow destined for a little town in Italy was paid for today after a big benefit entertainment program here Friday night. The plow is to be taken aboard ship tomorrow to go to a village in the Appenines, Capracotta. It will be received officially in Naples by Ambassador James Clement Dunn, who will accompany it to Capracotta. There the Ambassador will present Jersey City's gift to Mayor Gennaro Carnevale. Early last Fall Carnevale wrote Mayor John V. Kenny of Jersey City, telling him how his town of 3,071 persons is virtually isolated in the Winter by mountainous snow drifts. The result was a plan to give the people of Capracotta a plow as a Christmas gift from the people of this industrial city which has a strong Italian-American population. Friday night the show was staged to complete a drive for funds. Entertainment was provided by stars of screen, radio, television and sports. They included singer Frank Sinatra, once a Jersey City resident himself, comedian Jimmy Durante, and former heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock. Zampella, chairman of the drve, read a scroll from Capracotta, making Kenny an honorary citizen of the Italian village.

• Jersey City Show Climaxes Capracotta Snow Plow Drive, 1949.

​

The Exiria, American Export Line ship, which two years ago sailed from New York as the first "Friendship Food Ship" to Italy, again is the bearer of a good will gift to that country as she sailed recently from New York under the command of Capt. Charles Reilly. The people of Jersey City raised $20,000 to purchase a 240 horsepower 11-ton snow plow for the village of Capracotta, in the Appenine Mountains, Italy, in response to a letter to Mayor J. V. Kenny of Jersey City from Dr. Gennaro Carnevale, Mayor of Capracotta.

• «The Nautical Gazette», CXLIV:1, The Gazette, New York, gennaio 1950, p. 4.

​

Way up in the Italian Appennines, the mayor of tiny Capracotta wrote to J. V. Kenny, mayor of Jersey City: «Our lives depend on a snow plow, but we cannot afford one. Doctors cannot reach the ailing; priests the dying». This new plow, a gift of New Jerseyites to Capracottians, here starts its journey via an American Barge Derrick. The derrick could handle far bigger loads, but certainly none more pleasant.

• «Construction Methods & Equipment», XXXIII:4, McGraw-Hill, New York, aprile 1951, p. 37.

​