October 2023 LaCarota
Please Take Note: October’s Membership meeting has been moved to Wednesday October 11th. Same time.
President’s Message:
Ciao Fellow Club Paesano Members. As always, I hope that this month’s “LaCarota” finds you all doing well. Happy, healthy and safe. Just like that, our summer is over and fall has arrived. I hope that you all got your fill of summer time weather, and are ready for the cooler and shorter days. The climate has already started to change. We have rain and temperatures in the 60’s. Personally I’m not ready yet! As some of you know, I love our summers, and the heat. I guess growing up in the Canadian winters really made me dislike the cold! Now it’s time to start putting our patio furniture in and picking up the rest of our veggies in the garden. Hopefully October brings us a long and warm “Indian Summer” so we can all enjoy a few more summer-like days before the fall really comes in. We also get to welcome back our fellow members, Jimmy Calcagno and Dedra Ceglie from their trips to the “Mother Country”, Italia. They have both just returned, so hopefully they will share their adventures and pictures of their trips. Ah Italia, hopefully we all get back there someday. I just love it!
Member’s BBQ:
On Sunday September 10th, we had the chance to get together and enjoy a wonderful lunch in appreciation of all of our members and all that we do. The weather was fantastic, and the food was great. Our lunch was catered from “Kuya’s Islander Cuisine” in Gresham. We had a whole roasted pig, with a side of Hawaiian Mac-Salad and wasabi noodles with chicken and vegetables. Wine, beer and soft drinks were also provided. It was another great chance to have us all get together and socialize. For our newer members, a chance to get to know our older members and partake in the great things that happen at our club. This BBQ is given to all of the members that have and continue to work hard for our club. It’s for those of you that show up, help out and promote our club. Come to meetings and participate in what we do. Not everyone can be at every event and help out all the time, but we hope that this shows a little bit of appreciation, to those of you that do put the time in. On behalf of Club Paesano, I’d like to personally thank each of you! Thank you for all that you continue to do!
Halloween Dance:
Our Halloween Dance will be held on Saturday October 21st, which will be here in no time. Our Musical entertainment will be the “Design Band” who performed for us last year at our same dance, and our Charity partner will once again be the “Pink Sista’s”. Deb Hart who is their founder has been working endlessly to promote and sell tickets to our event. The “Pink Sista’s” will be holding a silent auction and raffle to raise money for such an important cause. They promote “Breast Cancer” awareness, and also provide retreats and activities for the survivors of breast cancer at no charge to them. What a terrific cause! Let’s all show up to help them bring in the revenue that they need to keep their program running. I am very happy to say that at this point, we are 66 seats away from an official “Sellout”! We have come close several times, but haven’t been there yet. I think this time we will do it! If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, I suggest that you do it real soon or else, you may not be able to get in. We will do our best to accommodate, even if it means adding a table or two. This has always been one of our most popular events, and our partnership with Deb Hart and the “Sista’s” has made it that much better! I always love to see all of the creative costumes in the house that night. I’m always so impressed with the thought and hard work that some of our members and guests put into having an original costume. We always have a costume contest to show our appreciation for all of their hard work and effort. As always costumes are an option and not a must, so for those of you that want to just come as you are, we welcome you too! It’s still not too late to purchase, so get on line and buy your tickets to this fun event today! We’ll see you there!
New Member Applications:
If you would like to sponsor someone you feel would be a great candidate for membership at our wonderful club, the time to get their application is at the end of September. I will make an exception, if you can either get me their application before or at our next meeting. You have an extra week, so email it to me before the meeting if possible. The cutoff date will be at the October meeting. If you don’t get their application in, then they will have to wait till next year. If you are looking to sponsor in a potential member, please make sure that you know them and that they will be the kind of person that will participate and will want to be a part of our club. They will need to work and have fun. They will need to be social and want to be around fellow members and promote our club. If you feel that they would be a good match for us and us for them, please bring them over and have them come to a couple of our events. I would love to speak with them. At November’s meeting you will have the chance to bring your candidate to the meeting and introduce them to us. They will then get a chance to tell us why they would like to become a part of our family and what they will bring to our CP table. Hopefully we will continue to bring on great new members that will want to grow and keep on developing our great club that we all get to be a part of!
The Fun Committee & our Monday Night Social:
Club Paesano and the “Fun Committee” are happy to announce our 1st ever “Christmas Bazaar”, which will be held at the club on Saturday November 25th and Sunday November 26th. It will be a great way to get some of your Christmas shopping done, with over 50 vendors, and a lot of activities. What a great way to bring in the Christmas Season! This will be a family event so bring out the whole famiglia! We’ll have food and beverages for sale along with music, singing and a whole lot more. We are still in the initial planning stages, but I will send out more information as we progress, along with fliers that you can pass out and share on your social media accounts. This will be a great time! The Fun Committee is also in the midst of planning a couple of other things in the near future, including a holiday get together at one of the Christmas events happening around the area. We will keep you posted. Our Monday Night Socials started a few weeks ago and are always a good time. The 1st Monday of the month is “Bring a Friend night”, which means that you can invite a nonmember for the night. Hopefully a potential member. If not, no big deal, if they are a friend of yours, they’re a friend of ours, Maybe, LOL! It’s a great way to hang out and get to know your fellow CP Members. Laughs, food and fun, is what it’s all about! See you there.
Club Paesano Dues:
Our Club Paesano membership dues were due in June. If you haven’t paid John Kern as of yet, please make plans on paying him soon. You can mail him a check, or pay him at our next meeting. John will accept Credit cards, cash or checks. John’s a busy man, so please don’t make him chase you. If you need to pay your dues or any other payments, please take care of it. Thank you.
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.
Cedarville Park Shares:
If you are interested in owning a piece of this fantastic place and would like to purchase shares, please contact Steve Petruzelli at 503-620-3447 or email him at [email protected] . The Cedarville Board of Directors is holding a shareholder’s meeting on Wednesday 22nd from 7pm till 9pm. Information about the Lodge and what’s been happening will be discussed. If you are a shareholder, you should plan on attending.
Paesano Bocce Club News:
Our Summer bocce leagues came to an end in August, but our “Fall League” is going strong. We are already into our 4th week of play. Everyone who signed up shows up at 9am every Sunday to compete. The difference between our Fall and Summer leagues, is that for Fall league, you are on a different team every week and keep track of your own points for the league’s standings. We form the teams evenly by skill levels and it’s been a great way for our regular players to get to know one another from our different nights. It has also been a fantastic way for our newcomers to learn the game from some of our more skilled players. We all play 3 games each and at the end of the 3 games you get a chance to “Shoot” 4 times for extra points. This is a great way to get our newer players and those who don’t “Shoot” a lot, to learn the technique and to feel more comfortable using it in a game situation. It’s part of the bocce game and a great skill to have. We will continue to play until “Mother Nature” decides that we can’t play anymore. So, unless it is raining, snowing or 30 degrees out, we will continue to play until further notice. Thank you to all of you that have been coming out there and enjoying Sunday mornings with us. We are currently in discussions about moving forward with our roof that we would love to have built over those beautiful courts. The roof over these courts would add so much more to what we are currently doing. It would put Paesano Bocce on the map! We are in the planning stages and will be speaking with the Gresham city planners in the near future. As always, we are constantly working on raising funds for our roof. We are selling advertising and personal signs (3 different sizes), Personal pavers, and bocce apparel. We are getting these loaded on to our bocce website so you can purchase right from the site and get the items delivered to you, just in time for Christmas. They all would make great gifts. Go to www.paesanobocceclub.com to check out everything bocce. Bocce news, league standings, tournament results, upcoming events, pictures and of course our items that we sell. We have also added a “Donation” button, so if you are feeling very generous and are in the Christmas spirit, we will always accept a monetary donation as well. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Bocce Board of directors, and all of the members that donate their time to help us out. This could not be done without you all! Mario Pompei, Larry Cereghino, Doug Burchak, Dino Gavazzi, Kelly Barasch, Brad Cotton and myself. Here’s to a great season with many more to come!
Portland – Bologna Sister City Association:
The “PBSCA” will be holding their “Sagra” Fundraising Dinner on Sunday October 15th. The doors open at 6:30pm and it will be held at St. Philip Neri Church. Please go to “portland-bologna.org” for more information and for upcoming events and news. You can also speak with our own Phil Potestio about it. You can reach him at [email protected] or 503-236-6364. They are a great organization helping a terrific cause. Let’s show them our CP support!
The Sons & Daughters of Italy’s Vancouver Branch:
The Sons & Daughters of Italy, will be holding their annual “Spaghetti Feed” on Sunday October 15th as well. It will be held at the 40 & 8 Chateau. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for children. This is their only fundraising event for their whole year, so if you’d like to help them out and have a nice lunch while you’re at it, please show them your support and attend. You can contact their president Rosann Grzesiowski at [email protected] for more information. Again, let’s show them our great CP support.
Thoughts & Prayers:
Well, I have a special request for your thoughts & prayers for my family. The heart and souls of both of my family’s patriarchs. My Father Romeo who was diagnosed with a “Spinal infection” and is struggling to walk and get around. My Mother Elisabetta (Lisa), who will be going in for shoulder surgery on October 10th. My Father-in-law Jim Sells, who suffered a stroke and broke his tibia 4 weeks ago and my mother-in-law Geraldene Sells, who also fell and hurt her arm and shoulder. I ask for your thoughts and prayers for them and of course wish them all a speedy recovery. It’s tough when it happens to all of them at the same time. My father always has this Italian saying “La vecchiaia e’ brutta”, which means “Old age is ugly”! I hope that it turns around for all of them really soon. I’d also like to keep Jeanie Burch, Becky Cereghino and Anna Nasib in our prayers too, as they recover from their issues as well. If you have anyone you know that is in need of an extra prayer, please contact me and let me know so I can mention them in this segment. As always, thoughts and prayers to all of our Club Paesano members, past, present and future along with their families and friends. Thank you
LaCarota Question:
Well now, we just added another name into the “Winners Circle”. Congratulations to Domenic “Cha Cha” Giusto on his win of the “Holy Grail” last month. Dom came out of nowhere, like a “Stealth Fighter Jet. He swooped in and grabbed the prize. Ok he didn’t exactly swoop in. It took him a couple of flybys (due to absent members) to nail it, but he finally got it! Will “Diamond Dom” repeat or was it just a fluke. Maybe we’ll have another new name to announce at our next meeting. We will have to wait and see. Seeing that October 31st is Halloween, my question will be about one of our favorite Halloween characters, The Witch. As we all know, the wicked witch has always been a favorite character of Halloween and a costume that has been seen about a million times. In North America, our witches usually come out at Halloween, and are synonymous with the event. Well in Italy they also have a famous witch that comes out around at a certain time of the year too. My question is this. Please give me the name of their famous Italian witch. Tell me what time of the year she comes around and exactly what she does to make herself famous. That’s it. Real simple! I really need to start making these questions harder for you all. My cantina is getting low on vino! Alright then, every correct answer will be entered into the drawing for the bottle of Vino, and as always, “You can’t win, if you don’t play!” Good luck.
Final Thoughts:
I mentioned earlier about my family’s health situation. It just makes me stop and think how precious life and time are. As young people we never really think about things like that. You are young, strong and invincible, and your parents, the “Rocks and foundations” of your life. They are also strong, well and never seem to grow old. They are always there for you and never ever let you see when they are troubled, hurt or not feeling their best. They were always there for us with support, advise, a laugh and sometimes a scolding but it was always for our best interest. They were always taking care of us, and you could never imagine them getting old and one day having to take care of them. Unfortunately, that time does come for all of us, whether you’re prepared for it or not. Hopefully we can all be there for our families at all times, but especially for our parents when they need it the most. I, like a lot of you, thought that that time was really far away, but it has crept up on my family too. I accept it, but it’s hard. I’m sorry and not meaning to sound sad and depress everyone, but what I am saying is to love and enjoy your parents, family members and friends. You don’t need me to remind you, but I think that every once in a while, we all need to step back from our busy lives and enjoy the love and all the family that God has given us, including your fellow Club Paesano family! Love each other and stay strong!
Salute & Ciao.
Rick