March 2024 LaCarota
President’s message:
Buongiorno a tutti i soci del nostro Club Paesano. Come sempre, spero che questa newsletter ti trovi felice, sano e sicuro! There you go, some Italian for you. I hope that we are all doing well. It’s been a busy month with events and weather. We’ve had a lot of rain and wind, especially out here in the east, and it’s been quite a mess. Clean up has been slow, but we are all getting there. Speaking of clean up, we’ll be having a Spring cleanup at the club coming soon. I will let you all know when that date will be. The snow, ice and wind really took its toll at the club and the property. Downed trees, branches and debris all over. If anyone knows of someone that would like to cut up and haul away the wood, please let me know. There are some big cedars and firs that came down, but it would make for some great firewood if you needed it. Just think, Spring is around the corner. 70’s, shorts and sun. I can’t wait! Hopefully everyone will enjoy a nice Spring Break.
Super Bowl Watch Party:
On Sunday February 11th we hosted our annual “Super Bowl” watch party. What a game it was! The 49ers and Chiefs played one heck of a game. It was a real “nail biter” that went into overtime. In the end, I know that some of you celebrated, and some of you might have been a bit sore, but all and all, it was a great game that had the KC Chiefs winning yet another Super Bowl! Can we call them a dynasty yet? They are well on their way to becoming one of the best teams out there. Along with the great game, Club Paesano put on a fantastic party! We had roughly 100 guests that attended and had a wonderful time celebrating with us. Everyone that I spoke to said that it was one of the best watch parties that they had been to and plan on coming back next year. That’s great news! We had an “All you can eat buffet”, 3 huge big screens, side bets, squares, kids’ games and a very reasonable “No Host” bar. All this for $15. Probably the best deal in town! Every year our attendance has grown, so we must be doing something right. Special thanks to Marc Battilega who cooked all of the food and kept it coming out, making our guests very happy. Johnny Kern for working the door, Jimmy Calcagno, Chris Siri, Mario Pompei, and myself for working the bar. Geno Benagni for making the squares and side bets, manning the table all day. John Benagni for keeping our POS System working. Kelly Barasch, Dougie Burchak, for setting up and selling merchandise. I apologize to anyone that I may have missed. This event couldn’t have been done without all of your help. Thank you again. Let’s make next year even bigger! Go Dolphins!
Carnevale Dance:
What a busy month of events we have had for February. Our membership meeting, Superbowl Party, and on Saturday February 17th, our annual” Carnevale Dance”.
Once again, a party for the ages. Our “World Famous” Spaghetti & Meatball dinner, a fantastic charity partner, “Calabarzon” and the sweet, sweet sounds of our entertainment group, “Crescendo Skye”. It was their 1st time performing at our club.The ingredients for a great time! We had roughly 275 guests attend and enjoy. Almost another “Sellout”. We came close. It would have been nice to have had 2 in a row. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic evening. The food was gone, the dance floor packed and our charity partner was very grateful with the monies that they received for their charity. I will get an exact number from them but they were very happy with the result and I’m positive that we will have a guaranteed partner for a long time. Our charity brought in over 150 guests. Let’s continue to make our events grow and become sellout after sellout. If you can’t make it to the event, just remember that you can always give your tickets away to friends that you feel would enjoy it and hopefully become regular guests at our events, our “Spring Dance” is coming up on Saturday May 11th.We are open to any new genre of music or style of event, but I need to lock something in pretty soon. I’m leaving it open to be a “Members Choice” event. If you want to be involved in planning the Spring Dance, and have ideas on what you’d like to see happen if different from what we have been doing, please get involved and get in touch with me so I can help make this happen. If you have a band or even a DJ in mind along with a good charity partner, that will be involved and bring out guests to support their cause and also help us with our bottom line, please ask them and let me know the result. I’d like to see our members happy, so this is a great chance to get involved and to help in making our Spring Dance another success. Get involved and make it great! Thank you.
Club Paesano Scholarship Fundraiser:
I am very happy and proud to announce our 1st and hopefully Annual “Club Paesano Scholarship Fundraiser Dinner”. This is something that is very near and dear to my heart, and something that I’ve wanted to do for some time now. I discussed it with our board of directors, and it was a unanimous “Yes” to making it a reality! On Saturday March 23rd we will offer an “All you can eat” dinner which will include, Pasta Bolognese, Pasta Pesto, Sausage with peppers & onions, salad, rolls and dessert all for the low price of $25 for adults. Children 12 to 6 yrs. of age, $15. Infants 5 yrs. and younger will be free. This event will be open to the public and is “Family Friendly”, so please make sure to invite all of your family and friends. Strangers will work too! I will be sending out invitations to the rest of the Italian clubs in the Portland and Vancouver areas as well. We have supported many of their events and fundraisers so I’m hoping that they will help us out too. Besides raising funds via dinner tickets, I would also like to offer some gifts for raffle to create another source of revenue, along with monetary donations. If you can donate a raffle item such as a gift basket, gift card, bottle of wine, vacation home, tools etc., or procure an item from a business etc., that would be very much appreciated. We will raffle everything off with ALL PROCEEDS, from both dinner and raffle going to our Scholarship fund. Several members have approached me asking to be involved with our Scholarship Committee. As of now, our committee members are Dino Gavazza, Phil Potestio, Anna Fazio Nassib, Vinny Curletto, Donna Sunsiri and myself. I thank you all for stepping up and taking the lead on this. If you would like to be involved and join our committee, please let me know asap. Our youth is our future. Let us do everything we can to give them every opportunity to educate and grow. The doors open at 5pm and tickets will be sold at the door. We will accept credit cards or cash for everything. Please do your best to make it out and to support this fantastic cause! See you there.
Fun Committee:
The Fun Committee is alive and well and is still meeting for our weekly “Monday Night Social”. This is a great night to meet up with fellow members and have some fun to start the week off right! Eat, drink, laugh and maybe win some dollars too in “LRC”. Most importantly, having FUN! We are planning some future events and I will let you all know when we have them scheduled. Please stay tuned! Let us know if you have any suggestions or ideas for future FC events.
Paesano Bocce News:
Even though there isn’t any bocce being played on our courts, our “Bocce Committee” is hard at work, planning for this upcoming year’s events. League nights, tournaments, rentals and most importantly, planning and strategizing to get a roof built over our 4 beautiful “World Class” courts. A roof over these courts propels us to a new dimension in the world of bocce. It puts us on the map as one of the major facilitators of bocce in the Pacific Northwest. Having a roof would allow us to play bocce and run the facility all year long, bringing in players from around the continent for high stakes tournaments and huge club recognition. Not only tournaments, but court rentals from the general public, organizations, corporations, retirement homes, etc. The sky’s the limit with this. If you would like to help with our “Raise the Roof” project or anything else dealing with bocce, please go to our website at www.paesanobocceclub.com or speak to one of our board members, Mario Pompei, Doug Burchak, Kelly Barasch or myself. Any one of us will be more than happy to answer any question that you may have about our club. Come on out, roll some balls and have some fun!
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 November 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. Also, to our new members you can purchase at any time.
Thoughts & Prayers:
Thoughts and Prayers go out to all of our Club Paesano members and their loved ones. I would love some extra prayers for my father-in-law Jim. At 93 yrs. of age, he’s at the point of his life where he needs extra prayers and the will to live. Hopefully our extra prayers will keep him comfortable and pain free. Thank you. If you have anyone that you would like me to include on our prayer chain, please let me know, so I can add them in our next newsletter.
LaCarota Question:
I am starting to see our participant group expanding in the monthly “LaCarota Question” This is a very good thing. A little friendly competition is always good for the soul! Congratulations goes out to last month’s winner, John “King Kong” Kern. Johnny successfully climbed the “Empire State” of vino with his new bottle of red. Now he’ll have to swipe and swing away at the existing and “Want to be” winners coming at him to take away his coveted prize. Will he successfully defend his new found title, or will he tumble to the bottom of the tower with this month’s contenders. Will “Bam Bam” “The Mauler”, “Superfly” or “My Cousin”, jump back into the winner ‘s circle to make “King Kong” a “One hit Wonder”, or will he be a long stay on the throne. We will soon find out. This month’s question is; “Which Club Paesano member was our very 1st President and what other CP award were they the 1st recipient of? That’s it. Another easy question for you all. I should receive a huge number of answers for this easy one. Let’s get your name on the winners list and give me the chance to give you your very own “Nickname”. LOL! All correct answers emailed to me before our next Member’s meeting, will be entered to win. Good luck!
Final Thoughts:
My final thoughts for this month are short and sweet and just this. Please keep in mind that your club needs you. Without your attendance and participation, we will lose what our ancestors and members who came before us, worked so hard to build. I know that I beat this drum a lot, but I can’t emphasize enough how much I want to see all of your smiling faces more often and at the same time. I want to see you at our meetings, our events, our extra “Fun Committee” outings, and anything else that is Club Paesano related. Not only do I want to see your faces, but I want to see your participation as well. This Club runs with volunteers, help and the expertise of its members. No one gets paid here; we just do it for the love of the game! The pride of being part of a great thing. When you think of it, not just anyone can be a member here, but you are, so be proud to be a part of this special group and try to do your part in keeping it going for years and years to come! Be good to your families, friends and your CP Family too, but most important, be good to yourselves.
Take care, “Abbi cura di te e Saluta”!
Rick