La Carota Gennaio 2023

January 2023

President’s Message:

Hello and Happy Holidays to you all. As always, I hope that this “Holiday” edition of our newsletter finds you all, happy, healthy and safe! I feel like I was just talking about summer time and all of the activities that we were involved in. Vacations, bocce and our outdoor fun. In the blink of an eye, we are looking at the 1st day of winter, a winter storm on its way but most importantly, the birth of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. It’s Christmas time y’all! I hope that you’ve all had a chance to get your trees up, decorations put out and your gifts purchased. Hopefully your Christmas dinners are planned and your guests invited. For those of you that are traveling, I wish you a safe trip, lots of fun and a safe return. We also get to bring in the New Year, just a week later. 2023! Where did the time go? Well, they say that time flies when you are having fun, so I guess for me, I had a fun year! I hope that you all did too and here is to a Fantastic 2023 for everyone.

Christmas Dinner:

On Sunday December 11th, we got to celebrate a “Club Paesano Christmas” once again. With over 200 members and their families, we gathered at the club to bring in the Christmas season. What a great turnout! It was nice to see so many members and their families, gathering together and enjoying the evening. Many smiling faces and laughs. The children enjoyed games and play time while waiting for the arrival of the “Big Man” himself, Santa Claus. We started with a terrific dinner that our caterers made especially for us. Everyone I talked to loved it. We said thank you and good-bye to our old board of directors, and welcomed our new board members in. 

I’d like to thank Dino Gavazza for his 2 years on the board and his hard work and dedication to our club and our cause. I would also like to welcome Carlos Barajas who was elected in and will be our newest member of the board. I know Carlos, and the amount of positive energy he brings. I really look forward to working and having him on our board. We were fortunate enough to bring in 3 new members to the club as well. We welcome Kelly Barasch, Lori Caldwell and TamRea Calcagno- Foster to our membership. I had the opportunity to speak to all of them and they are all willing and eager to help and be involved in our club. They all want to do as much as they can. I am happy to call them all “Paesano’s”. We also nominated and announced our “Member of the Year”, Congratulations to Doug Burchak. This is always a tough vote as there are so many Paesano’s that help the club and put themselves out there for us, but this year I couldn’t think of anyone that deserved it more than our friend Doug. There’s not enough space in this newsletter to describe all of the hard work and time that this man has donated and dedicated to our club. Not only “Club Paesano”, but the “Paesano Bocce Club” and “Cedarville Lodge & Park” as well. He exemplifies the true meaning of membership! As always, we got to sing our Christmas carols including the ever popular and Don Filippi/ Mario Pompei endorsed, “Dominic the Christmas Donkey”, and real fan favorite “The 12 Days of Christmas” That one always seems to get the crowd going and always a great way to burn some dinner carbs, LoL! The night could not be complete, without the arrival of old “Saint Nick” himself. He had all of the little ones excited and anxious to sit on his lap and tell them what they wanted for Christmas! Special thanks to Chris Calcagno, for being “The Man” every year! What a fantastic night and a great way to bring in the Christmas holiday and spirit. Can’t wait to do it again next year. Thank you to all of you that came in early to set up, help out during the event and stayed late to tear down and clean up. We are a club of volunteers and every little bit helps. Thank you!

New Officers and Board of Directors:

Our New officers and Board of Directors are: Officers: Rick Cervi- President (2 years) Jim Calcagno- VP (2 years) John Kern- Treasurer ( Forever) Jim Siri- Secretary (2 years) John Benagni- Sergeant at Arms (2 years) – Board of Directors: Geno Benagni (2 years) / Dominic Giusto (2 years) / Carlos Barajas (2 years) / Mario Pompei ( 1 year) / Doug Burchak (1 year) Chris Siri (1 year).

I want to thank all of the members that have served on the board for the last 2 years. I really feel that we accomplished some great things. I’m proud of what we’ve done so far, but know that we can do more and will do more to keep our club moving in the right direction. We already have plans in the works for the upcoming year and I really look forward to working with our newly elected board and any and all members that would like to be involved in making a difference and getting some new ideas accomplished. Please feel free to speak to me or any of our board of directors if you want to be involved or want to see some new ideas implemented. I am honored and humbled to be your President again and I will do my best to always put the club 1st and to make the membership proud to be Club Paesano members. I thank you. 

Fun Committee:

The Fun Committee got together in Canby, to bring in the Christmas season. On Friday December 16th, a group of us met at the Christmas Fair at the Clackamas County Fair Grounds. We met up and had a chance to get some last-minute shopping done. They had a nice variety of vendors there, selling some neat and interesting items. Some great gift ideas. They also had a local rum producer out of Sandy OR. that some of us indulged in. Free SAMPLES! LOL! It was very good. They also had a very nice light display outside. For a smaller venue, they did a fantastic job. Mario’s daughter Miranda, who owns “Gimme Some Sugar”, had a booth set up and provided us all with a beautiful and delicious platter of cookies and sweets that she makes herself. Everything was so good, and it was so nice of her to do that for us. She also provides a variety of different food items, and drinks. If you love fudge, give hers a try, it’s fantastic! We capped the night off with dinner at the “Wild Hare Saloon” in Canby. A great night had by one and all. Another good opportunity to get together with your fellow CP members outside of our official events at the club, and to get to know one another better. We are already working on our next event which will take place in the next month or two. I will be sure to keep you all updated. Our Monday Night Social is alive and well. It’s been a fun time to spend with other members and again a great opportunity to get to know one another better. If you haven’t been to one yet, put it on your calendar and come on out. We allow members to bring in a non-member on the 1st Monday of the month. Hopefully a future member, but it can be anyone you know. Just remember, this is another way to get to use your club and all it has to offer and to be social with your fellow CP members. After all, we are a social club. It’s all about the “FUN”!

Superbowl Sunday Party:

Our Superbowl party is back and will be held on Sunday February 12th. Doors open at 12 noon.  Come on out and cheer on your favorite team, that will hopefully take home the coveted “Lombardi Trophy”. I know that there are a lot of options out there for you, but Club Paesano can boast that we have one of the best parties in town. We offer an “All you can eat” buffet with a nice variety of foods. Football squares, side bets, raffles and probably the cheapest drink prices around, plus you will watch the game on 3 huge screens with an audio system to be able to hear all of the game and the halftime show. You get all of this for the low, low price of $10. It’s the best deal in town! Our Superbowl event is open to the public too, so please feel free to invite your family and friends as well. The more the merrier. If you would like to help set up, food prep,

make the football squares and side bets, run the raffle etc. please let me know. Hope to see you all there!

Carnevale Dance:

On Saturday February 18th we will have our Carnevale Dance. No time like the present to start making your plans to attend. They would also make a great last minute Christmas gift for someone. Tickets are available and for sale now on our website. Go to www.clubpaesano.org to pick out your seats and tables before they run out. Our dances are so much fun and the best deal in town. Dinner, dancing with live entertainment and very reasonable drink prices. Where else can you go and get all of this for $25. Again, our 4 major events are open to the public, so please invite your families, friends, co-workers and associates (21 years and older). It’s a great way to spend a night with family friends and your CP family. Get your tickets soon.

Heritage Night:

Last March, we had our 1st ever “Heritage Night”. It was something that I had been wanting to do for a while. We finally pulled it off and it ended up being a huge success. The reason for doing this was to give some of us newer members some insight into the history of our club, and how it came to be. We got that and more. We had key speakers that came in to give us our history lesson, and to fill us in on the heritage of Club Paesano. Some of our original members came out to speak with us. Augie Giusto, Richard Calcagno, Pete Rebagliati, Marc & Kathy Battilega and Anna (Fazio) Nassib, all gave us a speech on our history. It was great and very informative. We also had a sit-down dinner to go with our night. Greg DeMiestri and his brother-in-law Dennis, volunteered to make us a 6 course meal which was amazing to say the least. Everyone there raved about it and enjoyed it so much. Seeing the night was such a success, we are planning on doing it again and making it an annual tradition. The plan is to do it in March again. As soon as we get the date locked in, I will let you all know. If you couldn’t make it last year, please try to attend this year. You’ll have a nice night out and learn something about our Club Paesano Heritage. This is a members only event. More details to follow.

Important event dates for the 2023 year. 

Super Bowl 2023- Sunday February 12th

Carnevale Dance- Saturday February 18th

Heritage Dinner- March (Date to be announced)

Spring Dance- Saturday May 6th

Concert in the Park- Saturday August 5th

Members BBQ- Sunday September 10th

Halloween Dance- Saturday October 21st

Christmas Dinner- Sunday December 10th

Cedarville Shares:

If you are interested in owning a piece of this beautiful Lodge and Park property, please contact Steve Petruzelli at [email protected] or 503-620- 3447 to purchase Cedarville Shares. Property located at 3800 W Powell Loop, Gresham, OR 97030. Cedarville Share.

Cedarville Lodge & Park Rentals:

If you or someone you know are in need of a beautiful venue to rent for an event, please think Cedarville Lodge first. The club’s bookings are finally starting to pick up again, after this pandemic, but we can still use a little help. Please contact our Venue Director, Maria Duong, at 503-577- 8471 and she will be more than helpful and gracious in getting you all the info that you may need, and to also help you with coordinating your event.

Bocce League News:

At this time of the year, we don’t really have a lot of bocce happening, but there are still a few items to talk about. If you are currently a part of the league, I know that you can’t wait till June to start playing again. No time like the present, to start thinking about your teams and perhaps trying to get some new people to come out to play and hopefully join our league nights. Last year we were able to extend our league to 4 nights. Monday thru Thursday. We would love to get a Friday, Saturday and Sunday too, but for now we’ll concentrate on extending into Friday night. If you are a Club Paesano member and are interested in playing or forming a team, please go on our website to sign up, www.paesanobocceclub.com or please speak to one of our bocce board members. Mario Pompei, Doug Burchak, Dino Gavazza or myself. We can give you all of the info that you need and answer any questions that you may have. Our leagues are open to the public, so anyone can play. You can bring family, friends, work associates, etc. Bocce is a sport that absolutely anyone can play. Young and old, athletic or not, all genders, any experience, and skill levels. It’s for anyone and everyone. We are fortunate enough to have our own courts on private property, with plenty of parking and bathroom facilities. If you have some interest, but are not quite sure and want to try it out, please let one of the board members know. One of us can meet you out there and give you some lessons and let you throw the balls around so you can get the feel of the game. As most of you know, this last year we completed construction on our 2 newest courts, giving us a total of 4 “World Class” bocce courts. Our next goal is to get these courts covered with a roof. The roof would allow the leagues to continue playing all year long, promote more leagues, facilitate more tournaments and invite players from all over the country to come to our Club. Not only would it be a huge deal for the “Paesano Bocce Club”, but it would definitely benefit Club Paesano and Cedarville Park as well. To be able to construct this roof and to make this a reality, the bocce club needs to raise the funds to start it. We are always looking for donations and new ideas to raise the money. We are currently selling “Personalized and Business” advertising signs of different sizes to hang around our courts and our fences that face the “Spring Water Corridor”. This is especially a great way to advertise a business because of the foot and bike traffic on the trail. We are selling personalized pavers that will go around the courts. Hoodies, Tee’s, hats, beanies and towels are also for sale and would all make perfect Christmas, birthday, or anytime gifts. These items are all great and can create some revenue for the roof construction, but we really need some bigger dollars to start rolling in, no pun intended. If you have a company, or work for a corporation, that can donate or is willing to sponsor some of the construction or a tournament, please let us know.  Anything would help. The sooner we can raise this roof, the sooner we put “Paesano Bocce Club” on the map and really become a force in bocce to recon with!

Thoughts and Prayers:

Let us pray for and keep all of our members in our thoughts. Extra prayers go out to Sebastiano Rebagliati, Ken Gemma, Joe Castellano, Kathy Fazio, Jim Sells (My Father in Law), Katie Kaoru Kawaguchi Ibaraki (Geno Benagni’s Mother in Law) 

If you want to add someone for our thoughts and prayers, please let me know and I will add them to our list.

LaCarota Question:

Well, well, well, it looks like the King is back baby! After taking a couple of questions off, and with the constant and steady answering of one James “The Brawler” Burch, the ex champ makes a mighty comeback to regain his coveted title as the “Wine Winner” of the year. Congratulations goes out to the Champ, Mario “The Massachusetts Kid” Pompei, who came to play and is never out of the game for long. Once again showing that you can’t win if you don’t play! Being that we are about to celebrate one of the greatest events ever, Christmas, my question will be based around it and Italy. It’s another 2 part question. Here it is:

Please give me the name of the city that holds Italy’s most famous “Christmas Village” and what is the name of the Italian “Christmas Witch”? All correct answers will be entered to win our ultimate prize, the bottle of wine.

Final Thoughts:

We are once again at the end of another year gone by and looking forward to a new year and all of the great things that it may bring. We are all at different stages of our lives, and are all wanting, needing and hoping for different things that may help us. The most common things being, our health, our families and our happiness. Some of that may come to us in different forms, but whatever it might be, I hope that it brings every one of us the joy that we all need. Christmas is a great time to celebrate with family, have big dinners and to buy fancy gifts for others or yourselves. Hopefully we all get those gifts that we truly need, peace, love, health and happiness. Let’s not forget about the meaning of this holiday and why we have it. The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let’s try to remember all and try to give to someone that may go without. Let’s truly embrace the true meaning of Christmas. I always look at Club Paesano and its membership as a great gift! I’m looking forward to being with you all for the next 2 years and hopefully a lot more to follow. Please take care of yourselves and have a Merry Christmas and all the best of the New Year! 

Boun Natale and Felice Anno Nuovo

Salute & Cheers

Rick