From the Skaneateles, NY Journal, October 2007:

Kathleen Palmieri was truly shocked.
       
She showed up at the Sherwood Inn Thursday morning for what she thought was a meeting to discuss a fundraising campaign. Instead, Palmieri, a resident of Skaneateles since 1975, learned that she had been named the Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce's 2007 Citizen of the Year.
       
"It caught me so off-guard. I'm just shocked," Palmieri said later. "I've done a lot of things, but to me, they've all been simple things."
       
The chamber's Citizen of the Year Committee (Lynn Brown, Anna Nelson, Peggy Surdam, Mike Tutor and Susan Dove) chose Palmieri because of letters they received outlining Palmieri's numerous contributions to the area, Dove said.
       
These contributions include current and past work with any number of organizations in the region, from the Mother's Cooperative Babysitting Service (currently known as Moms and Kids),Skaneateles Early Childhood Center, Skaneateles Symphony Guild, The Skaneateles Arts Council, SAVES Capital Campaign Steering Committee, Samaritan Center fundraising events and various school PTCs and the School Improvement Team (SIT),  to helping with the high school shadowing program. She arranging a tour of Crouse Hospital for students for interested in health related careers.

Palmieri has been known for her work with a heart health awareness week at the Skaneateles Community Center. She is a founding member of the Go Red For Women Campaign in Syracuse and is a co-founder of the Crouse Hospital’s Women’s Heart Advantage Womens Health Initiative Program.
       
Palmieri has held several positions as a cardiovascular nurse -- she helped to establish the vascular lab at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse -- and now is the president and senior consultant of Cardiovascular Technology Resources, a nationally known cardiovascular ultrasound consulting service located in Skaneateles. On Friday, she was a speaker at a national convention on vascular disease in Baltimore.
       
 Additionally, Palmieri started up her own cake-decorating business three years ago. Called Icing on the Cake, she does a lot of pro bono work and provided the cake for the wedding of Sudanese Lost Boy John Dau and Martha Akech at the First Presbyterian ceremony June 5.
       
The chamber will host a dinner in Palmieri's honor; it is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 18. Any community members with stories about Palmieri and how she helped an individual or an organization can e-mail them to sdove@skaneateles.com.