October is Italian Heritage Month and Nutley and Belleville celebrated with the 35th annual Nutley-Belleville Columbus Day Parade along Franklin Avenue on Sunday, Oct. 8. This year’s dignitaries reflected on their heritage, why they celebrate Christopher Columbus and showed gratitude for their honors.

Nutleyite Henry Meola is the lighting designer and operator for ABC’s The Chew, for which his team earned an Emmy award.  He is a member of Local One IATSE and often fills in at the CBS and NBC networks. In high school Meola was a junior firefighter for Engine 30 and at the age of 18 transferred to Yantacaw Chemical Co., known as Engine 4, where he still is now. He joined the Nutley Volunteer Emergency Rescue Squad in 2011, after completing homeland security training. He is the president of NVERS.