This month has been very active for our Local Lodges. With this being an election year, they have been recruiting new officers to take on new responsibilities. As members of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, it is important for each of us to give a little time and energy to our Lodges. We are always in need of innovative ideas and new energy to keep our Lodges going in a growing direction. We can not afford to become stagnant. For those of us that are not able to take on an office, we must support our Officers in any way we can. Congratulations to all our new and returning Officers.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Saddleback Valley Lodge meeting to install new members. My apologies to President Hank Lowinger and the members of that Lodge. My First Gent, Ken, is down with a bad back. Hopefully, by the time you read this he will be back to his old self again. I’m afraid

This past month has been a whirlwind of activity. Ken and I were in Chico with the Vincenzo Bellini Lodge for the Western Foundation’s Golf Outing. I declined to participate in the Frozen Meatball contest. I just figured it would be better to go out a winner than to miss and lose! As you all know, I don’t golf so it would have been a definite miss! Instead I became the Tequila girl and was driven around by President, Tony George, to visit each group of golfers. I had never ridden in a golf cart to it was a great experience. Unfortunately, Tony had never driven a golf cart so there were some precarious moments! Thanks for the fun Tony!

I have not yet received a report of how much

The summer has come and gone with the blink of an eye! My Aces are doing great, and I hope at this printing they will be the PCL Champions!

Some good things have occurred since my last article. The Grand Council agreed to sign a contract with a highly reputable and recommended Real Estate Broker in San Francisco, Bruno Baldini. The official date for the listing will be August 27th. We are excited to begin this new era in our Grand Lodge history.

I attended the Supreme Summer Plenary session in Chicago. This was our first in person meeting since the pandemic and we were all happy to be together again. There was talk about Members at Large and where we, as Grand Lodges stand with this program. We have formed a committee to review

I am still in aww of my Grand Council and all the Delegates that attended our 85th Convention.

Ordinarily, our editor, Andy Pampuro, would write his synopsis of our Convention to go with the pictures he took. This year he was unable to do that, so Arlene Nunziati took all of the pictures, and I was drafted to do the synopsis. Thank you Arlene. I hope we did the Convention justice.

I want to thank all the Officers, Committee Chairs

What a wonderful time First Gent, Ken, and I had at the 40 Anniversary Dinner Dance for Vincenzo Bellini Lodge #2519. President Tony George was kind enough to put us up for the night. I can’t thank him enough for the wonderful accommodations.

The members of this Lodge have had me as a guest all through the pandemic. They are an amazing group of members that continued to meet via Zoom each month. Tony also created the “Bellini Dining Experience”. This was a Zoom meeting, twice a month, with a twist. They decided on an ingredient (fish, pasta, something green, and more) each time. Then everyone would make something that fit in the description. We would then eat together on Zoom and talk about our meals and whatever else. It was a wonderful dinner party.

Because of the continued contact with our members the Lodge has come out of this pandemic stronger than before. I hope