By Christina Leslie | Staff Writer

Ben Franklin once opined, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”

Augustine C. DeVito, a member of Christ the King Parish, Long Branch, is just the sort of person Franklin had in mind.

DeVito, 81, was recognized for his decades of service to the Monmouth County community with the N.J. State Governor’s Jefferson Award in a ceremony held June 9 in the Newark Museum. N.J. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno presented DeVito with the Lifetime Service Award for his nearly four decades of involvement in the “Holy Trinity All-Stars,” a basketball league for handicapped children and adults which runs November to April at the Christ the King Parish’s worship site.

DeVito was one of 22 volunteers recognized with the Jefferson Award, a program introduced by Gov. Tom Kean in the 1980s and echoing a program begun at the national level in 1972 by the American Institute for Public Services. The program’s philosophy is from President Thomas Jefferson and his beliefs in citizens providing leadership in serving and giving back to the country.

A lifelong lover of sports, DeVito had played high school and semi-pro basketball locally (“I was good then, but I could never make it today,” the five-foot, nine-inch tall man admitted). His youngest son, Christopher, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and other handicaps at age six which seemed to make organized sports an impossible goal.

“I was very disillusioned in the beginning,” DeVito admitted, but allowed young Chris to serve as bat boy in the Babe Ruth baseball league he coached. He, like Ben Franklin, knew something had to be done; seeing the joy the now-10-year-old youngster showed in sports, and realizing sports might be a great way for the two to bond further, DeVito began to teach Chris and five other disabled youth basketball drills in 1976 in the parish school’s gym.

“They could make you laugh, they were tremendous kids,” DeVito remembered of the initial group of boys and girls. Aided by other volunteers, the weekly skill sessions soon morphed into a basketball league. Years later, DeVito smiled as he recalled the skill of a young friend of his son’s at the free throw line. “Tracy, a girl who lived with my son in the same facility, was up to 17 foul shots in a row one week, and 18 the next,” he remembered.

News of the program, nicknamed “Augie’s Kids,” soon spread, and over the course of the 38 years of its existence DeVito and his fellow volunteers have aided hundreds of handicapped boys, girls and adults from all over New Jersey to enjoy the sport and the camaraderie. Players enjoy weekly practices, refreshments, an awards banquet at season’s end and occasional holiday parties hosted by program volunteers. DeVito’s son, Christopher, now 48, still participates in the league.

Further proving the Ben Franklin adage about busy men getting things done, DeVito shows no sign of slowing down. In addition to coaching during the “Augie’s Kids” basketball season, he remains an active member of the local Knights of Columbus council, a member of Christ the King Parish’s Holy Name Society and director of the Senior Old Guard Members of Long Branch. He and his wife Marie have been married for 53 years; in addition to Christopher, they have sons Michael, 52, and Stephen, 50.

DeVito still works as a salesman of bakery supplies; “only part-time, because, you know, I’m 81,” he reminded The Monitor almost apologetically.

“The whole city is behind me,” he continued, explaining the raft of awards from local and state organizations. However, DeVito’s motivation is not to amass more medals or plaques, but instead to enrich the lives of the handicapped children and young adults that gather at the Holy Trinity Parish Center each week from November to April.

“I like basketball,” DeVito said simply, “and all the kids…. They’ve been great. The more you do for them, the more you want to do.”

Looks like Ben Franklin was right once again.