Roma Lodge’s 85 Year Member!

Joe Signorelli Sr. joined the Order of Sons of Italy in America on April 25, 1936. Yes, 1936! Joe just celebrated his 85th year as a member of the Order and was recognized at the Roma Lodge gathering on May 3rd. Just three days later, on May 6th Joe passed away, with his family by his side, at the age of 96 in Lompoc, California. Joe’s parents, Adam Peter and Giovanna Signorelli came to America from northern Italy in the early 1900’s and farmed and ranched in the Lompoc area.

The Signorelli Family were longtime members of the “G. Marconi” Lompoc Lodge #1575 established on August 31, 1930. When the Lompoc lodge closed, members transferred their membership to the Santa Barbara Lodge #1552 which was established in 1929. In 2009 the Santa Barbara Lodge closed,

Around and About Still Safe from Covid

Following Italian Tradition, Katy Castro was named after her grandmothe Caterina Bellini. Katy’s mother, Regina, was born in Uzine, a town in the Friuli region of Nothern Italy. After Regina’s marriage to G.I. David Castro, they made a home in Pittsburg California. Now retired, Katy, a Colombo Lodge Trustee, devotes

The Pandemic Fallout!

It appears that the nation and California has turned the cor-ner regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as government restric-tions have been reduced. Roma Lodge sits in the center of the state and has recently moved into the less restrictive orange tier for Tulare County. Public venues can now have a 50% oc-cupancy rate which means that Roma Lodge will be meeting again on May 3rd.

History will record the number of deaths and health issues

Thomas Jefferson almost said, “Good luck is what you get after you do all the hard work to earn it”.

Italy has a population of 62 million people, of which 96 per-cent are Italian. Dialects include: Sardinian, Friulian, Neapol-itan, Sicilian, Ligurian, Piedmontese, Venetian and Calabrian & Milanese

Thinking Outside the Box

I am sure for many of us who write articles for our own lodge newsletters or those appearing in the Il Leone we will call up our last year article and type in the new information and save it under this year’s filename. The pandemic has changed all of that. The April 2020 edition of the Roma Lodge article had a complete listing of over 75 members who would be presented their “milestone” membership certificates for every 5 years of successful Roma Lodge membership. It included pictures of new members and their families and information about our 90th year anniversary celebration. Which of course never happened because of the pandemic. We have not met since March of 2020.

On March 20th I decided to participate in the Grand Council zoom meeting to learn about what is going on at the state level. I must thank and congratulate President John Costa and all the Grand Council officers