National Honor Awarded

To a Founding Member of St. Jude Melkite

Mr. Raymond J. Kayal Sr., National Chairman of the Order of St. Nicholas and a member of the Melkite Eparchial Finance Council, receives the prestigious Ellis Island Medal.

Raymond J. Kayal, Sr., President and CEO of Sirgany Enterprises, has received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a prestigious achievement award presented to citizens who embrace American values while maintaining the standards of their heritage.

Established in 1986 by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO), the Ellis Island Medal of Honor is presented annually through a national nomination process.

This year, 140 recipients were chosen from a field of more than 40,000 nominations and they were honored at a ceremony on May 8, 1999 at Ellis Island.

"It was a deeply moving moment for me and for my family, and I was sincerely honored to be among such a distinguished group of recipients," said Kayal. This year's award honorees included First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, entertainers Wayne Newton and Quincy Jones, and Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Past recipients include six United States Presidents, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, Governors and Nobel Laureates.

Kayal's parents were Syrian immigrants who arrived in the United States in the early part of the century through Ellis Island and settled in Paterson, N.J. In the early 1940's, his parents migrated to Miami.

A graduate of Miami Jackson Senior High School and the University of Miami, where he has taught business classes, Kayal married the former Loraine Sirgany, the descendant of Lebanese immigrants. Their three children reside in Miami-Dade County. Their daughter, Renee Kayal Boyett, 35, is a graduate of the University of Florida and heads her own interior design firm. Their son, Raymond J. Kayal, Jr., 33, is a UM law graduate and today Vice President for Development at Sirgany Enterprises. Their youngest child, Mary T. Kayal, is a graduate of Lynn University and an executive and part-owner of Lahoud and Hardan Enterprises, Inc., General Contractors.

In 1982 the Vatican invested Kayal, Sr. as a Knight into the American Association of Knights of Malta, a lay religious order which is the oldest order of knighthood in the world and which proclaims the sick and the poor to be ³the lords it serves². Later, in 1998, the Vatican again invested Kayal as a Knight, this time into the Order of St. Gregory the Great, one of the highest and most widely recognized Pontifical Orders of Knighthood. The Order extends its membership to highly regarded military or civilian citizens who have distinguished themselves by virtue and piety. Kayal received this honor for his longstanding reputation and positive involvement in the community, his leadership and his selfless generosity.

A resident of Pinecrest, Kayal oversees the operations of the family-owned, Miami-based Sirgany Enterprises, Inc., a leader in the airport retail industry with operations at 28 locations throughout Miami International Airport. He is also a trustee of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and is affiliated with the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) in support of St. Jude Children¹s Research Hospital. Kayal is also a founding member of the Melkite Catholic Church's local parish community of St. Jude and a parishioner of the Roman Catholic Church of the Epiphany.

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