When Doreen Berrios-Castillo talks about her 21 years as a school secretary, she doesn’t think about it as a job.

“It’s more than a profession,” said Berrios-Castillo. “It’s my passion. I love to help and serve people. It’s truly a calling.”

A member of the UFT School Secretaries Executive Committee, Berrios-Castillo has participated in phone banks, rallies and other union activities. “She goes over and beyond,” said Mona Gonzalez, the chapter leader for school secretaries.

For her dedication, Berrios-Castillo received the Annette Carlucci Celebration of Life Award at the 28th annual School Secretaries of the Year Awards Luncheon on May 31. The award honors the legacy of the late Annette Carlucci, a secretary who was also a chapter leader and, in a first for a secretary, a UFT district representative.

Berrios-Castillo, who is now the secretary for the Victim Support Program in the UFT Safety and Health Department, was one of nine secretaries honored at the annual event, which drew approximately 200 secretaries and their family members, friends and colleagues. The luncheon featured a performance by the Columbus Campus Jazz Band under the direction of conductor and music teacher Steven Oquendo.

George Anthony, a teacher at Susan E. Wagner HS on Staten Island and the executive director of Peace Dynamics, a conflict resolution and anti-bullying organization, was the guest speaker. He praised the school secretaries for the multiple roles they fill “from office manager to psychologist to crisis counselor.”

Nickie Zambardino, who worked for 25 years as the payroll secretary at PS 112 in the Bronx, received the Goldie Colodny Award. Although she retired last year, she said that she still contacts new secretaries in her district to support them as they adjust to their new jobs.

A Secretary of the Year was honored from each borough and from the special education and alternative high school districts: Michelle Minetti, from Bronx Alliance Middle School; Frances Hayes, from IS 96/Seth Low in Brooklyn; Kendra Bowman-Burns, from PS 527/East Side School for Social Action in Manhattan; Fatima Carpino, from Queens Vocational and Technical HS; Stacy Ulahel, from PS 26, Staten Island; Sonia Andrews, from Hearing Education Services, District 75; and Carol Williams, from Pathways to Graduation, District 79.

Hayes, the Brooklyn Secretary of the Year, thanked the UFT “for giving me strength to push through during difficult times.”

“To know I have a sisterhood and a brotherhood who will be there for you and who will fight for you -- it’s a comfort that I just can’t describe,” Hayes said.