Briganti Raises Funds For Liberty, Ellis Island Museum
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Steve Briganti has spent the past 27 years raising funds for improvements to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York.
Briganti, a 1959 Warsaw Community High School graduate, has served as president and chief executive officer for The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Inc. since 1982.
He is a 1964 Butler University graduate with a major in history and political science.
His parents are Ben and Celeste Briganti, who left Warsaw and moved to Florida in the late '70s. Briganti's brother, Peter, is a 1965 graduate of WCHS who now lives in Goshen.
Steve Briganti said the foundation currently is working on a $20 million expansion of the Ellis Island Museum.
The expansion will tell the entire story of the population of America, starting with the arrival of the Native Americans and including the present American citizens.
The foundation's first task was to restore the Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island for its centennial in 1986. Inside the statue, the foundation developed a museum to tell the history of the nation's symbol. The statue was opened July 4, 1986.
In addition to Briganti's construction and fundraising activities, he led the development of the 220,000-square-foot Ellis Island Immigration Museum at Ellis Island, the fourth largest museum in New York City.
The expansion is planned to open in 2011, at which point the museum's name will change to Ellis Island: The National Museum of Immigration.
In 1982, President Reagan asked Lee Iacocca, then chairman of the Chrysler Corp., to start up a private sector effort to restore the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. That's when the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation was started.
Briganti was chosen to launch the organization's activities. He has directed the foundation's in conducting national marketing, fundraising and promotional activities as well as oversaw all construction on the monument.
Since then, the foundation has raised approximately $600 million for improvements to the Statue of Liberty.
Briganti was instrumental in opening the The American Family Immigration History Center in 2001 at Ellis Island. The center holds the computerized records of people who arrived through the port of New York between 1892 and 1924, and holds 50 million pieces of information.For more information about the foundation, visit ellisisland.org
