MESSAGE FROM YOUR STATE FIRST VICE PRESIDENT

Hello to October and Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month.  It is wonderful to see all the Lodge activities scheduled across California and Nevada celebrating Columbus and Italian-American Heritage. What is your Lodge doing to celebrate our heritage this month?

Over the last month, I was able to attend a Napa Lodge Meeting, where they had 119 attendees! Lori and I secured all the food and paper products for Northern Solano’s Annual Gene Bruno Picnic on Saturday August 23rd.  The picnic was held at the Fairfield Bocce Courts where the weather Gods blessed us with mild day.  On Sunday the 24th Lori and I traveled to Sonoma for the Valley of the Moon’s, Ice Cream Social to raise funds for local scholarships. We met their new President Molly Caselli, Vicki Mulas, the new Recording Secretary and Walt Viviani, one of the new Trustees.  We also met the President of the Cesare Battisti Lodge (Petaluma), John Albini. On Wednesday September 3rd, Lori and I were invited to the St. Helena Lodge, to participate in celebrating Past State President Lynn Lawrence-Murphy receiving the prestigious Sellaro Award.  St. Helena Lodge President Kevin Coleman found a great 2-minute video on the life of Vincenzo Sellaro who was one of the five founders of the Sons of Italy and who the award was named after.  Here is the address to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvV7xzdqEFA

The three area Vice Presidents continue to host a monthly Lodge Presidents Zoom meeting on the 4th Thursday of the month.  The October meeting will be on Thursday the 23rd. Please reach out to one of the Vice Presidents for more details.

I have been working with Alison, our Office Manager, to create a Grand Lodge Social Media Campaign. The Instagram account and Facebook page are being linked together through Meta Suites.  Thank you WF CAO, Maria Fassio Pignati for helping with that process. The hope is to create a Social Media Committee to continue to develop, create content and approve content for our social media platforms. This campaign will be focused on creating awareness of the Order and driving potential members to the local Lodges. We could use your help with content from your local Lodge events.  If you have event pictures or reels, please email them to Alison at the Grand Lodge sonsofitalyca@aol.com along with some details of your event. You can also help just by following the Grand Lodge on Instagram

@sonsofitaly_CA and Facebook.

@Order Sons and Daughter of Italy – Grand Lodge of California.

Over the past month I have had a chance to spend one day a week at the Grand Lodge Building in Sacramento.  I have spent part of that time meeting with Dan Marinelli, the Grand Lodge Property Manager. We have walked the property together to identify any needed maintenance and future projects.  We have met with one of the current tenants whose lease is coming up for renewal and we are looking at our options to lease out the unused space on the first floor.  We continue to look at ways to control costs and maximize the investment in the building.

Enjoy, all the activities that come with Italian-American Heritage month as we recognize Columbus and the many contributions made by Italian Americans.