Lakewood Ranch Community Fund honors local philanthropists

The best moment for Angela Massaro-Fain at the Lakewood Ranch Community Fund Gala on March 18, will involve tears.

Angela and her husband, John Fain, will be honored with the 2017 C. John A. Clarke Humanitarian of the Year Award. The couple, co-owners of Grapevine Communications, will stand in front of the crowd at Lakewood Ranch Country Club, receive their award and applause, and then will walk to the side.

Angela will look at John and say the phrase that has driven them to be exceptional philanthropists.

"Mom would be proud."

The passion, in the form of tears, will then flow as Angela thinks about her late mother, Mary Frances Massaro, who passed along to her daughter a sense of altruism during her daughter's early years growing up in New Jersey.

Over their time in Lakewood Ranch, John and Angela have given their community close to $2 million in money and donated services. They often have left an event with Angela delivering the "Mom would be proud," phrase.

"She says that all the time," said John, who married Angela in 2000 and combined with her in 2002 to revive Grapevine Communications, which Angela originally had started 1988 in Montreal and sold n 1998 (retaining the naming rights). They built their business into the largest advertising, marketing and public relations agency south of Tampa on Florida's west coast.

Indeed, she has had plenty of opportunities to say it.

"When we decided to start Grapevine, we made the conscious decision if we were going to be in the community, it was important for us to be part of the community," John said. "We saw what this community was, and that was a springboard to it."

The Lakewood Ranch Community Fund board cited their longstanding history of community involvement as the catalyst for earning its top humanitarian award. John said he is starting to wind down after spending nine years on the Asolo board of directors along with being a board member for We Care Manatee, among his many boards. Although he spends about 30 hours a week at Grapevine, he said, officially speaking, he is retired.

Angela, who is president of Grapevine and its 16 employees, continues to be a driving force in the community. She is the founding director and administrator of the Sisterhood for Good Women's Giving Circle and is a Founders' 50 member of the Lakewood Ranch Community Fund. In 2016, she served the Community Foundation by being the Gala co-chair, as secretary for the board, being a member of the Planned Giving Committee and as a board member. She also is involved with a host of other organizations.

John and Angela, who live in Central Park, continue to run the Massaro Kozak Art Scholarship Fund, which was established in 2014 to honor Out-of-Door Academy art teacher Paula Kozak, who was battling cancer at the time and eventually died in 2015. Kozak had inspired their daughter, Maria-Francesca Massaro, now 21, to pursue a career in art. The award is presented to students of ODA and Saint Stephens who "embody the creative spirit of our youth in their pursuit of a four-year degree in arts and/or communications."

A glimpse into John and Angela's personal life gives insight at what makes them to successful as philanthropists.

"I am as much a Type A personality as Angela," John said. "But it comes in different forms. It takes me a lot longer to get (angry). Angela talks to everyone without the intercom. She is a wild, crazy, gorgeous, adventurous Jersey girl. Well, not wild, make that outgoing. I am from Louisville, and I am more understated. I am English, and part Cherokee. I am more of a Southerner and my great, great grandfather served in the Confederacy. My daddy taught me about manners and to be soft-spoken.

"She is the creative person. She gets the details and figures out the big picture later. I look at the big picture, then figure out the details."

While all that makes for a good partnership, one underlying factor brings everything together.

"Our strength is our passion for each other," John said. "We are married and equal partners."

Angela illustrated his point with a story from about 10 years ago when they were in Las Vegas shopping at an art gallery. Angela spotted an oil painting by American contemporary artist Henry Asencio. She loves to surprise John so he talked to the store employee about taking her credit card and billing her so John wouldn't see the transaction.

Meanwhile, John found a Tuan sculpture she had looked at previously. He told it was too expensive, but once she moved to the other side of the store, he pulled out his credit card and asked the clerk to quietly do the transaction.

Back at home, they had hidden each other's gifts until their anniversary, where Angela carried in the painting and John hauled in the crate with the sculpture. They realized then they both had the same idea, and they laughed.

It's a passion for life and love that carries into their love of Lakewood Ranch.

"I'm very proud because this is our home," John said. "Lakewood Ranch is as much of a city as Sarasota or Bradenton." 

Through that love and pride, they do what they can to make life better in their community. They encourage their employees to be active in the community and to have a sense of giving back. It's a big part of their hiring process to make sure the prospective employee is going to be involved.

Through it all, they hope Maria-Francesca inherits their giving spirit.

"We want to pass a legacy to our daughter," John said. "I think she recognizes the value of being involved."

Someday in the not too distant future, Maria-Francesca might be leaving a fundraising event that she organized. The phrase will continue.

"Mom would be proud."