Mike and Angelica (DiMascio) “Gel” Penta are known to many. They own Gel’s Kitchen on West Shore Road in Warwick and a sister restaurant on Main Street in West Warwick. 

Their stories are remarkable.

Mike and Gel got to this place and time with all-American grit and determination.

Mike, who grew up in Warwick with his three brothers and sister, attended Warwick schools until June 2, 1980. It’s a day that changed his life.

He was standing outside Aldrich Middle School and was struck by a car.

He wasn’t supposed to survive.

If he did survive, he was sure to have some lasting mental and physical challenges.

After a long stay in the hospital, he returned home and, thankfully, started to get his memory back.

Due to difficulties at home, he left with his younger brother and they literally lived in Salvation Army cardboard boxes (occasionally staying at his sister’s house). The boys scrambled for food and took baths in Arnolds Pond.

This lasted for awhile and when he turned 16, Mike finagled his way to get an old car, where they lived for 6 or 8 months.

Though they attended school, they tried to mask the fact that they lived in boxes and a car.

Then one day the late local realtor Don Morash opened his heart and told the boys they could stay at one of his apartments (in those days there were not many homeless shelters) at a discount if they would do some handiwork.

Within a year Mike founded MC Renovations in Warwick and started what was to be an extremely successful construction company, which lasted over 30 years. He has also been involved in the community politically having served as chair of the Warwick Republican City Committee and run for office locally, most recently as an independent in Ward 4. He is presently a member of the Warwick Planning Board. 

 Gel, who grew up in Johnston, also had her challenges, but not as dramatic a path to where they are now.

She attended Johnston High School and then a Trade School studying Criminal Justice.

But she wanted to be a waitress.  She loved the interaction with all kinds of people.

Her father tried to convince her otherwise, telling her “You can’t be a waitress all your life!”

Gel (never a shrinking violet) told her dad “I can, if I own my own business and building!  So, I did.”

Gel met Mike in 2006, and the rest, as they say, is history.

They married in 2010 and pooled their resources to purchase a business.

Their family would soon grow with the addition of a son to add to the two daughters and son that Mike had from a previous marriage.

According to Gel, Mike suggested that they wait until Gel turned 40 to buy a business, but Gel prevailed.

In 2011, they bought a local breakfast restaurant on Main Street in West Warwick, and “Gel’s” was born.

In 2017, the couple purchased what was a pizza restaurant at their current location with the stipulation that they would operate as a pizza place for 2 years, after which they could purchase the building and convert it into the breakfast and lunch restaurant that it is now.

 Now, Mike has retired from the construction company and operates the Warwick location, with Gel mostly spending time at the West Warwick location, though she travels back and forth.

But this story is not about challenges they overcame to realize their dreams.

This story is about probably two of the most prolific community activists and charitable fundraisers in Rhode Island history.

Over the last few years Mike and Gel have raised over a half-million dollars for local and statewide charities and community organizations, a stunning amount that is an everyday mission for them and a special source of pride for Gel, who was told by her old boss “once you own your own restaurant, you will lose your desire to raise funds” for charity.   So much for that prophecy!

Here are just a few of the organizations they have helped.

-        A “Be the Change” fundraiser at the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society in West Warwick where they raised over $16,000 to help needy families (Mike won the pie-eating contest.  He told me that it was easy because he loves chocolate cream pie!)

-        “Team Channing” where they raised thousands for a little boy with severe medical challenges to help his family pay for the huge medical bills.

-        School lunches.   What started as a local fundraising drive to help children that couldn’t afford school lunches (and were ostracized for it) turned into a national news story.

Tens of thousands of dollars were raised with big help from celebrities like Sharon Osborne who pitched in $20 thousand, and Alec Baldwin.

Gel received calls from across the globe in what, unfortunately turned into a legal quagmire as the schools had no mechanism to accept the money.  They eventually figured out a way to pass it through the Warwick Community Action Program.

 In between there were blood drives and other smaller events that raised money for organizations such as “Pink Heals”, run by volunteer firefighters who raise money for cancer victims.

And, they have fun events like when West Warwick Councilman Jay Messier puts on a dress and sells donated pies and chocolate strawberries during the holidays, with all proceeds going to local charities (the events have raised over $50 thousand dollars).

Gel’s even has a special menu called “Always in our Hearts” where 10% of the cost of the special meal goes to the respective charity of a young local athlete who tragically lost their life.

And now, Gel and Mike are in a competition called “Visionaries of the Year”, where people compete against each other to raise the most money to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).

The competition lasts 10 weeks.

Mike and Gel went right to work, and in a matter of three weeks raised over $21,000 at an “Adult Prom” held recently at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston.

Their “honored hero” is Amelia, a 4-year-old girl who was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago.

Typical Gel and Mike, they enlisted businesses like “Kilted Camera” and an “Off the Record Productions” DJ to volunteer their services.

According to Gel, it was an “awesome” event.

So when you walk into Gel’s Kitchen you now know that there is a lot more going on there than cooking bacon and eggs.

Through those doors are people who love their community.

I wish there were more of them.