PORT ST. LUCIE PEOPLE
THE LIFE COACH
BY ELLEN GILLETTE
“Wow! Just being there for people at their lowest moments and seeing
them change is powerful.”
More recently, a woman asked Bruno to reach out to her son in
prison. Wrongly accused, the man had lost everything: job, apartment,
family, children, driver’s license, reputation, dignity. He was
suicidal. Bruno sent cards, visited, encouraged.
“He called this summer to say thank you. The charges were
dropped. His life is amazing now. It is so rewarding to be part of
those things.”
While at CBN, Bruno also worked with the American Red Cross.
“Opportunities came. I was given offers I couldn’t refuse, doing
what I love.”
Eventually, he served as program director whose responsibilities
included interfacing with agencies and churches, finding housing for
the underprivileged and providing HIV prevention and education
services in the Bronx.
“Imagine being in such an environment,” he says. “You walk in the
streets and see needles. The role model in the community is a drug
dealer. But when you are working and serving your purpose, you
don’t operate out of fear. I would think, ‘If this is where I lose my life,
I lose it in the middle of my mission.’ ”
Born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Anthony Bruno
travels today between Port St. Lucie and
Hudson, Florida.
“We had a very happy childhood,” Bruno says of
his two brothers and two sisters. “We lived near the
ocean. In fact, every city I’ve lived in has not been
far from water. Haiti was a place of safety if you
chose to be safe, growing up under a dictatorship. If
you minded your own business, life was peaceful.
You stayed out of politics.”
Taught by Haitian and Canadian friars, Bruno
says his favorite subject was languages. He is fluent
in Creole, French, English and Spanish, with a smattering
of Italian and Russian.
Bruno’s father was a master carpenter. When a
close friend of Bruno’s mother extended a letter of
invitation to move to the United States, they saw an
opportunity to provide a better life for the family.
Leaving the children with grandparents, they navigated
the difficult immigration process in New York
and gathered necessary funds. Three years later,
they sent for Bruno, who was 16, and his siblings.
“Dad was late picking us up,” he says. “We were
kind of lost at JFK Airport. Culture shock. We were
glad we had cassava bread and peanut butter to
keep us going.”
Working at several jobs, Bruno focused on
schoolwork and getting used to American English.
“I would find a thought in Creole, translate it into
French and then into English. Later on, you learn to
just think in English.”
Bruno’s parents urged the children to benefit from
the very best America had to offer and walk the
straight and narrow.
“We were always in church,” he says. “I planned to
be an architect but my nature was not to sit at a desk.
I loved working with people, so I followed my heart.”
His heart also led him to his future wife, whom he
met during college and married in 1982.
“One of the things I fell in love with was Jackie’s
security,” he explains. She said ‘I know who I am
and whose I am.’ That’s impressive to me.”
While watching a program on the Christian
Broadcasting Network, he learned of a need for
volunteers and applied. At the interview, however,
he was offered a supervisory position over phone
counselors at the Brooklyn center.
“I was so blessed to do something that I loved, see
lives transformed.”
Bruno also counseled callers, including one
memorable doctor.
“He called the hotline and he said, ‘I have three
shotguns in front of me. I’m trying to decide which
one to use to blow my head off.’ ” Bruno shakes his
head and groans, remembering. “Tough, isn’t it? With
patience, I listened to his situation, his troubles.”
Later, the doctor called Bruno to thank him for
saving his life.
36 Port St. Lucie Magazine
ELLEN GILLETTE
Raised in Haiti and New York City, Anthony Bruno exudes a gratitude and humility that
he uses to encourage others whenever he can.
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