Camille Cilli came to Miami with her husband Joe and three small children from New Jersey in 1975 and she says it was the best move of her life, though she admits that it took some time for her to believe that.

Camille Cilli 

"Joe's grandmother had lived here with his aunt and Joe always came here with his dad as a youngster," she said. "He loved Florida and always said we were going to move to Florida. I always said no because I don't like change.

"One particular winter I had our three little children in the station wagon and I was driving in one of those snowstorms that come down heavy and fast," she continued. "We lived on a hill and in order to get there you had to go down a hill, then up another hill and our house was on the top of the hill. I remember the station wagon going down the hill sideways. I was terrified and I had to leave the car down there at the bottom of the hill. Joe came home from work and I said, 'If you're ready to go to Florida, I am too.' He put the house and the business up for sale in record time before I could change my mind. And, that's how we got here."

Joe and the boys immediately got involved with Pop Warner football and Khoury League baseball, constantly practicing and rarely at home. Camille sat home miserably alone and questioning the move to Florida, leaving all of her lifelong friends behind in Hoboken, New Jersey.

"So, I made the choice that I could either sit home and be miserable," she recalled, "or I could go out to the park and see what was going on. The second year someone asked me to be team mother and I did and loved it. And, I guess that's how it started. Then I became scorekeeper and on and on and on."

She became team mother for three teams every year because her three sons played baseball.
"That was when they were little and we wore shirts that read Mike's Mom or Team Mom for Joe, whatever they used to put on the back of the shirts," she said with a laugh. "And, I remember going from Coral Reef Park after one game and changing shirts in the car to get to Suniland for the next game."

Youth sports became a huge part of the Cilli's life. She attended all of the games, organized events and hosted team parties, usually for three different teams. And then one day someone asked her to help out working on the concession stand.

"If you hang out in the park long enough, they give you something to do," Cilli said. "So, I worked in the concession stand and loved it."

When the lady who was managing the concessions for the league departed in 1984, Cilli volunteered to take over the operation.

"I've been managing concession stands ever since," said Cilli, who works in facilities at the University of Miami. "Then, when my youngest one was a Juvenile II player, that was going to be the end of our involvement. Joe and I were looking at each other thinking that the kids were going to leave and then what were we going to do? They kind of like said we didn't have to leave if we didn't want to. So, I stayed on."

She and Joe are still there, voluntarily running the concessions for the Howard Palmetto Khoury League at Chapman Field and Coral Reef Park. And they've gone full circle, as their children are now working in the league as umpires.

"What I feel really blessed about is that my boys, who got so much out of these sports are now giving back," Cilli said. "They're actively involved on the board of directors and my oldest son, Vinnie, was in charge of facilities a few years ago. Next year he will be chief of umpires and he umpires throughout the season. My youngest son was chairman of the rules committee for the last four years, he was chief of umpires and was also out here coaching and managing a little Atom team of five year olds. To Joe and me, it is such a blessing to see that. The community means a lot to them and they are giving back.