April 2024 LaCarota
President’s Message:
Hello everyone. My Club Paesano Famiglia! As always, I hope that this addition of our newsletter finds you all, Happy, Healthy and Safe! Happy St. Patty’s Day to all my Irish – Italian members out there. When it comes to a party, we Italians can have fun no matter whose party it is! The word is still out on whether St. Patrick was considered Italian, being born to Roman parents, or was he British, being that he was born in Britain. Maybe a good LaCarota question? We’ll see. We’ve “Sprung Forward” and added an extra hour of daylight to our day and today is actually the 1st day of Spring. I’m so excited to get this cold and rain behind us and get to the comfortable temperatures and drier days. Shorts, t’s and sandals is my type of fashion and being out on the water, beach or bocce courts is my kind of day! This past weekend was perfect! It was in the 70’s with the sun shining. I know that a lot of our members took to their lawns and gardens and anything to do with the outdoors to get a start on making the outside look great again. I hope that you got to take advantage of it too. Good times are ahead so enjoy it my friends!
1st Annual Club Paesano Scholarship Fundraiser:
I am so happy to announce that our 1st Club Paesano Scholarship Fundraiser was held this past Saturday. Although we didn’t have the attendance that I was hoping for, the night was still a successful one. We did manage to raise some funds and when we calculate the final number, I will let you all know. If you couldn’t make it last night but would like to make a donation to the fund, please bring a check, cash or your credit card to our next meeting and see John Kern. He will be happy to take care of it for you! We had some nice raffle and silent auction items to win. I’d like to thank John Benagni and family, Vinny & Kristy Curletto, Daniela Sardo, Debra Ceglie for donating items, and to my wife Diane for going shopping for our CP donation baskets. Thank you to John Kern, Geno and John Benagni, Dino Gavazza, Steve Leonetti, Daniela Sardo and Chris Siri for coming in early to help set up in the morning. Mario and Jayne Pompei for coming in to set up the bar and run it throughout the night along with Danny Taylor. Thank you to Kelly Barasch and Doug Burchak, for helping give out the raffle items. A huge thank you to Greg DeMeastri, Jimmy Calcagno and Lori Bass for coming in and getting all of our delicious food cooked and feeding our guests. Another special shout out to our newly formed Scholarship Committee who are getting all of the guidelines set for the Scholarship application. Our committee members are, Dino Gavazza, Vinny and Kristy Curletto, Anna and Reza Nassib Fazio, Donna Howard and Phil Potestio, contributing all the way from the Mother Country. This was hopefully the 1st of many more to come and an annual tradition that will continue to help our future Italian professionals.
Gresham Chamber of Commerce “Unofficial Happy Hour”:
On Wednesday April 10th at 5pm, Club Paesano will be hosting the Gresham Chamber of Commerce’s “Unofficial Happy Hour”. This is an event that any Chamber member can host to show and advertise their facilities and to have a chance to rub elbows with our fellow Chamber members. They are usually held at our members’ restaurants or pubs, so I figured, “Why not our Club?” We have a beautiful venue with a bar, kitchen and plenty of space. We hosted one last summer where we had a chance to showcase our outdoor facilities. This time I wanted to have it inside, to show off our beautiful lodge. It’s a great way to advertise Cedarville lodge and a very good way to get Chamber members to support our Club Paesano events too. We’ve had a great relationship with the Chamber for the last 3 years, and our friendship with a lot of their members continues to grow. I have so many of them wanting to come to our events and rent the lodge. If you haven’t been to an “Unofficial” Chamber happy hour, you should try to make it out if you’re available. We’ll be serving food for purchase and have a “No Host” bar as well. Like I said, it’s a great time and a good chance to get to know some of your fellow Chamber members, plus another good reason not to have to cook. Let us do it for you. The event is free to attend, so come on out and represent your club!
Heritage Night:
On Sunday April 14th at 3:30 pm, Club Paesano will once again be hosting its 3rd Annual “Heritage Night”. Just like the past 2 years, this will be a night of fantastic food, great company and a chance to learn about your “Club Paesano” heritage! Our very own member and Chef, Greg DeMaestri will once again be preparing us a 4-course dinner to start the festivities. Trust me, if you haven’t been to the last 2, you’ll want to attend this one. His dinners have been outstanding! After dinner, we will have a chance to listen to our senior members tell us about some of our history and how our Club Paesano came to be. As always, I’ll be looking for our members that have some years with the club to step up and give us a history lesson and to share some of their experiences growing up as a Paesano. I’d also like to add some old Paesano pictures, videos, literature or even garments, to what we already have, to display for our newer Paesano members that haven’t been around as long. It’s a fantastic night of comradery, history and a great chance to learn more about your club. We’ll have some music going in the background, but will turn it up and clear the dance floor if anyone gets in the mood to “Shake it off”! The price of this event will be $15 per adult and $10 for children who are 12 to 5yrs of age. 4 yrs. and younger are free. You can bring your own bottles of wine to consume and CP will provide the beer and soft drinks for free. Please “RSVP” so I can get Chef Gregorio an accurate headcount to purchase the proper amount of food. Thank you and I hope to see you all there! RSVP @ [email protected] or 503-891-7374
Business Excellence Award; Gresham Chamber of Commerce:
I am very proud to announce that this year, Club Paesano was nominated to the Gresham Chamber of Commerce” Business Excellence Award”! It’s such an honor to be recognized for all of our hard work, by our community. It really shows that the people that come to our events and have been to our beautiful lodge realize what we do here. It’s great! We were nominated amongst some well-known businesses that are just as deserving, but it would be a nice feather in our cap to actually take the award back to the lodge. Either or, we are being noticed out there folks. Keep up the great work and keep spreading the word. Invite family, friends and whoever you can to our events. Our hard work is paying off!
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.
Paesano Bocce Club News:
Our 2024 Season is starting to ramp up and before you know it, we’ll be out rolling on those four “World Class” courts we have out there! Our Season “Kick Off” meeting will be held at the club on Tuesday April 9th at 6:30pm. At this meeting we will format the new season, go over league policies and any new rule changes. This is also the time that we start registering teams. If you have your teams set, then fill out our online roster sheet along with paying your annual dues. If you don’t have a team yet but would like to play or need more information, you are also welcome to join us. We’ve made some very big and positive changes to our website. It’s been updated and will make things very easy for you. Our new sign-up page will allow everyone to register and pay online, so you won’t have to worry about mailing or bringing cash or checks to me at the courts anymore. You can also make donations to our new roof there too. If you haven’t been on the site in a while, you should go on and check it out. www.paesanobocceclub.com Some of you have been fortunate enough to play indoors this off season, but I know that it’s probably been hard on the rest of you that haven’t rolled a ball since the end of our Summer or Fall leagues. For those of you that have been longing to play, you won’t have much longer to wait. The weather has been getting better, and some of us have been able to go out there to do some clean up and play a few games. The courts are still in need of more cleaning and we are in the middle of putting up some new fencing on the north side of the courts. We are installing a new, sharp looking rod aluminum fence. It’s the same style as was placed around the lodge. Not only will it look fantastic, but we will be selling space on it to hang banners and signs which can be purchased through the bocce league. Being that the fence faces north to the Spring Water trail, your advertising potential is huge as it’s viewed by hundreds of people every day that use the trail to bike, run and walk. If you own or work for a business, or just want to show off your family name, come and speak to us and purchase your sign or banner and your space now, while there is plenty of room. I’m sure that it will fill up really quick. I hope to see you at the next meeting and again on the courts!
Spring Dance:
On Saturday May 11th we will have our annual “Spring dance”. As always, our doors open at 5:30pm and we will keep the party going till 11pm. Tickets are $25. Our last 2 dances have been pretty successful, so let’s stay in the spirit and make our Spring Dance just as good! Tickets are on sale now! Go to our website at www.clubpaesano.org to purchase yours today. Don’t wait till the last minute and risk losing your favorite table. Our events are open to the public (21 yrs.) so please invite your family, friends and all of your acquaintances too! Please help us to reach the 300-guest mark. Do what you can to promote. Share it on your social media, take and post fliers and get the word out. The more the merrier and it all benefits our club and our members. Like I’ve said in the past. If you can’t make it, please give your tickets away to someone that will enjoy the event and hopefully become a long-time attendee. Make it a gift and know that you are helping your club out! Let’s make it a “Sellout” and have some FUN!
Thoughts & Prayers:
I’d like some extra prayers for my family. Unfortunately, we lost my father-in-law, James Sells 3 weeks ago. He was 93 years old and lived a good life. Jim loved the outdoors and liked to fish, play golf and he was also very active in his church. He was the father to my wife Diane and her brother Dale and also had 6 grandchildren that he loved deeply. Earlier this year we lost my mother-in-law; his beloved wife Geraldine Sells of 60 years. They are together again now for eternity in heaven. Diane and I invite you all to the memorial service for Jim & Gerry Sells on Saturday April 13th at 1pm located at Crossroads Christian Church. 2505 NE 102nd Ave. Portland. 97220. Reception following on site. I would also like to send extra prayers to our long-time bocce member, Brad Cotton. His father Mark Cotton, a long-time track coach at Grant High school also passed away last week. He was also 93. If you see Brad at our next bocce meeting, let him know that you’re praying for him. Thoughts and prayers to the health and wellbeing of all of our members and their loved ones. If you have someone that you would like to add to this segment, please let me know so I can put it in the next newsletter.
LaCarota Question:
The “King” is back!! Congrats goes out to the “Vino King” Mario POM-PEI, for getting himself back into the driver’s seat of this wine race we have going here. The Club Paesano Vino “500”! After a short drought, Mario the “Mauler’s” thirst was quenched once again! Like the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play, so let’s see how many of you will bid to take away the King’s crown! Seeing that we just celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, let’s focus on this patron saint. Here is this month’s question. “What happened to St. Patrick when he was 16 yrs. old and is he truly Irish? That’s it. All correct answers will be entered in our drawing to win Mario’s bottle of wine! LOL!
Final Thoughts:
Easter is fast approaching and hopefully you’ll be sharing it with family, friends and loved ones. I’m sure that there will be plenty of food, drink and great fun. The children will be running around in search of easter eggs packed full of candy and treats left by Peter Cottontail. With all of the great dinners and family fun, let’s not forget the true meaning of this day. “HE HAS RISEN!” Our God sacrificed his only son Jesus Christ to wash away our sins. It was an unselfish sacrifice that you could never even fathom, yet necessary to save all of us. Whether you are religious or not, at one time or another you might have been forced to make a sacrifice for your family and loved ones. It’s never been easy but hopefully it worked out for the best and made things so much better. Like our parents and ancestors before did for us. To the military, police force, firefighters and to all of our essential workers and service providers, that sacrifice to keep us safe and healthy, we thank you all. Please enjoy and cherish the time that you have with one another, and never take that time for granted. Have a Happy Easter, and we’ll see you at the next meeting. Buona Pasqua!
Salute,
Rick