Native son to speak at International Breakfast June 21

Sacred music, a breakfast kickoff and the princess pageant are on tap to start the Lorain International Festival next week.

Lorain’s Italian heritage is the spotlight nationality for this year’s festival.

Lorain native son James O. Bonaminio is this year’s keynote speaker for the International Breakfast at 8 a.m., June 21, at German’s Villa, 3330 Liberty Ave. in Vermilion.

Bonaminio is better known as Jungle Jim, of Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield,

one of the largest independent grocers in the United States.

Bonaminio is “a true Lorain success story,” said Lorain International Association President Ben Davey.

The entrepreneur is the son of the late Clem Bonaminio and Maria Bonaminio, who remains the matriarch of Bonamino’s Lorain Flower Shop & Greenhouse, 1105 W. 21st St. in Lorain.

By her own admission, Marie Bonaminio said she does not talk too much about her son, who is now 67.

“I never did too much with his life because I didn’t want people to think I was bragging,” she said.

“But I can prove all of this. You’d be surprised with what one little boy did with his life.”

A pitcher for Admiral King High School, Bonaminio earned a scholarship to play baseball at Miami University, his mother said. He gave up his scholarship when he realized his livelihood would come from sales, not strikeouts, Marie Bonaminio said.

A born entrepreneur, James Bonaminio began

making his own business opportunities as a boy. In 1971, he set up his first semipermanent produce stand in Hamilton.

Three years later, James Bonaminio found land to buy, and in 1975, he opened Jungle Jim’s International Market. The name came from a nickname that a customer gave him.

Since then, the business has grown in size. One of its taglines was “Four Acres of Food All Under One Roof.”

Jungle Jim’s also has grown in accolades — so

much that James Bonaminio was profiled in “Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America,” a business book by George Whalin.

The author described Jungle Jim’s as “shoppertainment,” a retail destination that stands far apart from mere grocery stores.

“Jungle’s approach to business may be unusual, but he’s a wildly successful retailer with a business that cannot be compared to any other in the world,” Whalin wrote.