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Bruno Serato
Where he lives: Huntington Beach
Family: Mother, Caterina Lunardi; 4 brothers, 2 sisters and a nephew
Hero defined: Restaurateur, Anaheim White House
As owner of the acclaimed Anaheim White House, a landmark restaurant in (Anaheim) Santa Ana known for its tasty cuisine, haunted dining room and beautiful frame of white lights, Bruno Serato has prepared memorable meals for many satisfied guests through the years, including a Who’s Who of celebrities: Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Sidney Poitier and even a few U.S. presidents. But the restaurant’s real VIPs are the underprivileged children in Orange County who Italian-born Serato feeds every night.
In 2003, Serato founded Caterina’s Girls Club in honor of his mother. Through this charitable organization, Serato feeds about 35,000 impoverished children every year. In the midst of serving up gourmet dishes for White House patrons, Serato’s culinary staff prepares about 100 pasta dinners night after night for the county’s “motel kids,” whose parents are so poor they live in low-cost motel rooms, and delivers them to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Anaheim in a 12-passenger van purchased exclusively for the meal deliveries.
“I think it is so sad that if I don’t serve dinner to the kids, they will not eat until the next day at school,” Serato says. “I don’t like to think about what happens on days when there’s no school!”
In the last 4 years, Caterina’s Girls Club has raised more than $250,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Anaheim, money that has also helped provide free dental care, tutoring and piano lessons for the children.
Serato has issued a challenge to other restaurateurs in the country to create similar programs, but so far, no takers. “If they knew how much it helps, they would probably do it, also.”
What began for this kind-hearted businessman as a charitable cause for children has grown into a lifelong passion. “I plan on running this program for as long as God gives me the strength, and until every kid is able to have dinner and eat at night.”
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