Award winners take center stage at Agganis Breakfast

LYNN – Five new members were inducted into the Agganis Foundation Hall of Fame on Sunday morning as the festivities surrounding the Agganis All-Star Classics kicked off at Manning Field with the annual breakfast for the scholarship recipients, athletes and award winners.Click here for an Agganis photo gallery.The Dr. Elmo F. Benedetto Athletics Award is given to a person who best symbolizes Benedetto’s dedication to student-athletes. Benedetto founded the Agganis All-Star Football Classic in 1956 and served as Lynn’s athletic director for 26 years. This year, former Bishop Fenwick and Shawsheen softball coach Ed Henry was so honored.Henry led one of the greatest dynasties the North Shore has ever seen in high school sports, coaching Fenwick to seven consecutive Division 1 state championships. After leaving Fenwick, Henry guided Shawsheen to a pair of Division 3 North titles and has left a coaching lineage that includes St. Mary’s Colleen Newbury and Concord-Carlisle’s Lisa McGloin, among others.Henry was on hand as the head coach of the North softball all-star team and was truly shocked that he was receiving the award.”It was a surprise and very nice,” Henry said. “I was walking down to the field with my daughter (Rachel), and she said, ‘I think they’re talking about you.'”The Paul F. Cavanagh Community Award is given to a person who conveys Paul’s and the Foundation’s ideals of education, sportsmanship and community. Cavanagh died in a 1990 plane crash at age 43 while on assignment for the FBI.Jansi Chandler was awarded the Cavanagh Award. Chandler, an Agganis Classics committee member since 1992, spent 11 years as director of the Lynn Department of Community Development and three more as managing director of economic development for the Boston Redevelopment Authority.Chandler has also overseen the creation or management of nonprofits like LCDHC and LynnArts. She also recently helped chair Girls Inc.’s $11 million capital campaign to build a new facility and transform the former Shoe School in the shadow of High Rock Tower.”I’m proud to receive an award named after Paul, for whom community meant so much,” Chandler said.One person humbled to receive his place in the Hall was Salem News sportswriter Mike Grenier, recipient of the David C. Weidner Media Award. Weidner was a writer at the Item when he was stricken with a fatal heart attack in 1992 at the young age of 24.Ironically, Grenier was sitting two seats down from Weidner when he was stricken.”David was such a promising sportswriter,” Grenier said. “I was there when he died, and it was one of the worst days I’ve ever had in covering an event. It was so tragic.”Grenier joined the News in 1971 and became a full-time staffer in 1977. He has covered the Boston Celtics and is still a staple around the high school gymnasiums around the North Shore.”I am totally humbled to get this award,” Grenier said. “It is one of the biggest honors I’ve ever had to be recognized by the Agganis people. They do a fantastic job every year in giving kids a chance to showcase their all-star skills.”The Harold O. Zimman Foundation Award went to Wonderland Greyhound Park president and CEO Richard P. Dalton. Dalton and Wonderland have been huge supporters of the Agganis Foundation for almost 25 years.The Lynnfield resident began working at Wonderland in 1973 and is also executive vice president of the Back Bay Restaurant Group.The Attorney Charles Demakis Heritage Award is given to someone of Greek heritage who advances the Agganis Foundation’s ideals of academics and ethics. This year it was given to Michael Antonakes.Antonakes, a 1943 graduate of Lynn Classical, taught at Salem State from 1965 until his retirement in 1992. He also is an actor/playwright and has translated the works of many Greek authors into English.