The Italian Community of Akron, Inc., Le Radici'
LE RADICI MEMBERSHIP MEETING
June 8, 2010
ATTENDANCE: President Giovanni Catalano welcomed twenty members to tonight’s meeting. He apologized for us having to meet in the downstairs room.
SECRETARY: There were no additions or corrections to last month’s minutes. A motion was made by Joe Roversi to accept the minutes & it was 2nd by Tony Dalessandro. Virginia read a letter from the Sons of Italy asking us for a donation to the Council Scholarship fund. She also read a Thank You letter from the IACF for our donation to the Hoban Essay award program. Based on our concerns for the students to take Italian Language classes, her recommendation was that we have a “language award” in place of the essay if we decide to continue in this program. Jo Ann Gentile stated that we should request a copy of the winning essays as they have always been sent out in the past.
PRESIDENT: Giovanni Catalano informed us about his meeting with the Mayor of Capestrano, Italy—Dr. Marulli. He was meeting with all the local donors in the Cleveland area who gave generously to the Earthquake Fund. To date, they have received donations totaling $97,000.00 to be used towards a rehabilitation center. This should be completed by the first part of next year.
Joe Roversi has accepted the vacated Trustee position on the Board. Dora Quattrocchi will now be the Delegate to Council.
Saturday, June 2 is an important holiday celebrated as Republic Day in Italy to commemorate the date that American & Allied troops freed Italy from the Nazis.
To date there has been no response from the Italian Center regarding our letter about merging. We will just continue on with our events as planned. There will be no Membership Meeting in July because of all the work for the two Festivals. In August, we will have a guest speaker about the Health Care system. A short essay on Father’s Day was read. Next Tuesday, June 15, our last movie night will feature “Night of Shooting Stars”.
ITALIAN COUNCIL: Sally Dalessandro reported on this month’s meeting. The checking account balance to date totals $15,289.37. The flyers for the Akron Festival are available. There will be a Beer Garden with Tramonte handling supplies. The Scholarship Breakfast will be on Saturday at the Lock 3; Di Feo’s will be catering at $10 per person. Sally read a list of the winner’s names. The prizes for the raffle are: 1st place—four nights in Vegas, 2nd place--$500, 3rd place $300. There will be a Wine Tasting at the Civic on the Wednesday before the Festival at $60 per person. A pizza eating contest will be held on Sunday. To date there are only eight girls for the Columbus Day cotillion. Forms are available for the Achievement & Merit Awards. A patron ad consisting of one line for $5.00 is available to purchase. As we always receive three tickets for the Scholarship Breakfast, Sally Dalessandro also made a motion that we send the President & two others to the Scholarship Breakfast & Ralph Pezzotti 2nd. All were in favor.
We also purchase 125 raffle tickets every year to use as we like. Ralph Pezzotti made a motion to purchase 125 raffle tickets & Tony Dalessandro 2nd. All were in favor.
MEMBERSHIP: The application from Pat & Sarah Di Lullo for Le Radici membership has been Board approved. Catherine D’Agati made a motion to accept the Di Lullo application & Maria Chiarappa 2nd. All were in favor.
SUNSHINE: Mary Fraiya sent a “Get Well” card to Dora Quattrocchi. A fruit basket & “Sympathy” card was sent to Tomasina Elavsky for the passing of her husband.
NEWSLETTER: Susan Bridgen reported that she has contacted La Gazzetta & has not received a call back yet. She will continue on as usual with our Newsletter. Please send in any articles of interest to her.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: To date, only four people have signed up for the Italy trip. It will probably be cancelled. We will try again next year, possibly renting a villa in Tuscany & just having a small group participating.
To date, only one application has been submitted for the Festa Italiana Scholarship through Le Radici. The time limit will be extended for one more week.
The Anniversary Dinner Dance is planned for September 18, 2010. Giovanni would like to have all members attend. This will be a home-cooked family style meal with entertainment provided by Oro Puro. There will be a cash bar. After membership ticket deadline, it will be open to the public.
Giovanni is looking into having the culture book published. We will need lots of local information to be collected by our members & will also need someone to co-ordinate this project.
Giovanni would like to have a trip to the Italian Culture Gardens in Cleveland. This would be after the Festivals are done & we could stop for lunch in Little Italy.
Bocce will be played every Monday evening at 6pm at Lions Park.
Kay will be meeting this week with members of the Young Adults & the Italian Center to discuss attending & participating in our events.
FESTIVALS: Kay Corsaro has the sign-up sheets for workers & bakers. We will sell sausage sandwiches for $5.00 & a dozen pizzelles for $3.00, and also bottled water. Lots of helpers are needed on Friday morning to help with the lunchtime crowd. We will use foil & plastic bags if anyone wants a “to go” meal. Marie Chiarappa has been generous in lending us two refrigerators to be used at the Festivals. For the Akron Festival we will purchase 500 lbs of sausage; we will need more for the Falls Festival as there will not be as many sausage sandwich vendors. Please contact Kay Corsaro at 330-628-8273 to help with both Festivals as lots of help is needed. Also, if anyone is interested in making pizzelles for either the Akron Festival or the Falls Festival, please contact Kay. Pizzelles were a great sale item last year as we ran out quickly. Lots of pizzelles are needed for both festivals!
The meeting was adjourned at 8pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Virginia Cruickshank
Recording Secretary
NO MEMBERSHIP MEETING IN JULY!! PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW FOR OUR NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING ON AUGUST 10, 2010.