July 2024 La Carota
President’s Message;
Hello my fellow Club Paesano members. As always, I hope that this edition of our newsletter finds you all, healthy, happy and safe! I hope you are all doing great and that many good things have been happening for you all. We finally got to our 1st day of summer last week. Our days are longer and warmer and we are already at the end of June. Where has the time gone? I looked at the calendar and realized that I needed to get working on this newsletter! Didn’t we just have our La Polenta dinner and our 1st Scholarship? I know that I couldn’t wait for summer to get here, but man, that went by fast! Has anyone been doing anything exciting lately? Are you planning any vacations or major summer projects? Cedarville lodge is buzzing with weekend rentals and weekly parties. Bocce is well underway and jam packed from Monday to Thursday. The club has been a popular spot to be. I know because I spend at least 3 to 4 nights a week there. If you have a weeknight free, come on over and enjoy a bocce game or a walk in our beautiful park. Everything is green, lush and it’s a great place to be on a summer day. Come out and enjoy what your club has to offer you.
La Polenta & Scholarship Dinner:
Our last meeting in June was actually our La Polenta Dinner and 1st Annual Scholarship Dinner. I am happy to say it all went very well and we will continue to do it every year! The dinner was fantastic as usual and the company was great too. Special thanks to Marc Battilega for running the kitchen and cooking all of the polenta. Thank you to Donna Howard, Dino Gavazza and everyone else who helped in the kitchen and helped to serve the food. Also, special thanks to all of you that made a roast and brought it so we could put it in our sauce. We had so much, that it was our meatiest sauce ever! So good! It was so nice to once again see all of our members and guests having a good time together. There were a lot of good conversations and laughs going on throughout the evening. We also gave away our 1st ever Scholarships to 3 very worthwhile candidates. We had 6 great candidates apply, but unfortunately, we only had enough money to make 3 scholarships. Maybe next year we can raise more money so that we can give away a bit more! Our deserving candidates that were selected by our committee were, Bronwyn Allabastro, (Granddaughter of Member Tom Allabastro). Morgan Calcagno, (Cousin of Member Jim Calcagno), and Adriana Cervi (My lovely Daughter). It was a tough decision, but our committee picked accordingly. I’d like to thank the committee again. Dino Gavazza, Donna Howard, Anna & Reza Nassib, Vince and Kristy Curletto, and all the way from Italy, Phil Potestio. Thank you for all of your hard work and here’s to making next year even better! If you would like to be on the committee, please contact me. We can always use some more help for everything we need to get accomplished for next year.
Concert in the Park;
This year’s Concert in the Park will be held on Saturday August 10th. Our gates will open at 4pm, and the party will go on till the last person leaves the park! Our band will be the “Design Band” and our charity partner will be “Calabarzon”. As you all know this is our outdoor event which will be held in our beautiful park. Surrounded by trees, our “Fred Siri” amphitheater will be looking great! This event is “Kid” friendly, so bring your whole family. No need to stay home because you can’t find a babysitter! Bring your children’s friends too, so they can all have fun. We use the whole park, so there will be plenty of room for them to run around and have a great time. Our ticket prices are $25 – table seating, $20 for lawn seating (bring your own low back chair or blanket) and will both include our famous Spaghetti & meatball dinner. Children under 6 yrs. of age will be free. There may be other food to purchase and as always, we will offer a “No host” bar for all of your favorite libations. The Concert is just about 6 weeks away. Get your tickets now, so you don’t miss out on getting your favorite spot. Being an outdoor event, we will have plenty of room for guests, so please invite as many people as you can! Family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and even people you’ve just met. We’re a big family here, so let’s make it an even bigger party. The band will have you out dancing in the park till 10pm, then you can come over to the “Cantina” for our after party, where you can hang out with your favorite beverage and fellow guests. Again, my fellow CP Members, let’s make this a huge event and one that will have them talking about for a long time. Let’s make it a party that our guests will want to come back to, year after year! Tell your families and friends and be sure to post and share to your social media accounts. Do your best to spread the word. With all of your help, this event will be our best ever!
Paesano Bocce Club;
Our Bocce leagues kicked off the 1st week of June and have been rolling along smoothly ever since. We have 4 full nights of bocce and could have potentially had a 5th night. The popularity of this sport has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years and it shows. We have so many new faces out there. They are learning the sport, having a blast, and are starting to show a competitive side too. Everyone is starting to learn the rules and the strategy of the game and it’s really starting to show. We had our 1st official tournament of the season on Sunday June 23rd. It was our Men’s & Women’s Doubles tournament. There were 12 men’s teams and 8 women’s teams participating. A great day of bocce was had by one and all! There were many good games that were very close and highly competitive. Our participants definitely came to play and win! Congratulations goes out to our 1st place winners. On the men’s side, it was our very own Dino Gavazza and Paul Barasch and on the women’s side it was our very own Kelly Barasch and Skylar Benagni (daughter of John Benagni). The Barasch family had it going on that day. Way to go Father & Daughter! I’d also like to give a huge shout out to our new sponsor, Marathon Printing! Anthony Foster and his crew really took care of us. They donated funds for our tourney and also brought refreshments and gifts to give away to our group. Anthony is a very nice guy, and his company does some great work. If you or your company is in need of any kind of advertising, talk to Anthony. They do signs, banners, sandwich boards, fliers, swag, etc. Tell him that you are a Club Paesano or bocce member and receive an automatic 10% off. Anthony is more than willing to negotiate as well. Once again, a huge thank you to Anthony Foster & Marathon Printing! As I said in our last newsletter, Paesano Bocce has now become a 501-C3, non-profit. We can now accept donations and are able to give you an official receipt for your taxes. Not only can you donate money, but materials and labor too. As you know, our next big project is to cover our courts with a roof. That will not only extend our bocce season making it an all-year activity, like other states have, but it will put us on the “Bocce Map”, for tournaments. Anything will help us out. For any information about bocce, please visit our website at www.paesanobocceclub.com . You’ll find out anything you need to know about our leagues, standings, upcoming bocce tournaments, purchase an array of things, and you can also hit the donate button too. We’ve come a long way, but we’re not quite there yet. Any help will be appreciated! I am very proud of our board of directors and all the hard work that we have put in to make this a reality! Thank you to all of our members too. Without you we couldn’t have accomplished all of this! 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:
Need a good reason to purchase Cedarville Shares? Get Astronomical savings on Park Rentals and save Thousands!
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.
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.
Thoughts and Prayers;
Please give some extra love and prayers to our own Doug Burchak who lost his mother Marilyn last month. Marilyn is survived by her husband Jay, and 3 sons, Doug, Mike and Craig. Thoughts and prayers also to Lynda DeMaestri, mother to our own Greg DeMaestri. Lynda has been dealing with several health issues and needs our support. Please give Greg some support and pray for his mother’s wellbeing. Our thoughts are also with Debbie Calcagno, spouse of our V.P. Jimmy Calcagno. Deb is going in for a hip replacement. Our thoughts and prayers are with you both and here is to a speedy recovery Deb! If you know of any CP Member or family that is in need of an extra prayer and support. Please let me know, and I will add them to this section.
La Carota Question;
Well, my last question had to do with our La Polenta dinner and polenta in general. We didn’t have a lot of answers, but for the few of you that did answer, we will be drawing a winner at our next Member’s meeting. Most of our regulars, including the Wine King, Mario, didn’t answer. Perhaps Mario is trying to leave the door open for the rest of you to catch up with him! Seeing that next month, July, starts off with 2 major holidays; July 1st, being Canada’s Independence Day (and John Benagni’s Birthday) plus July 4th being our Independence Day, my question is this. What day is Italy’s Independence Day? There you have it. Let’s see who our next winner will be. All correct answers emailed to me before the next meeting, will be entered to win the “Coveted” bottle of vino! Buona fortuna!
Final Thoughts;
Here’s to all of our Club Paesano members, both past and present. Here’s to you and all of your hard work, making this great club what it is today! It’s so great that our ancestors came to this country, got together and made a home for themselves and their families to all gather in. Not only did they think of their present situation, but they also thought about our future as Italians coming to this country, this state and this city. I’d like to thank all of the Italians that came before us and put out the hard work, knocked down the walls and raised up such a great place for all of us to enjoy now! Let us do our part as current and future members to keep this place alive and well. Let’s keep it a place to call home, a place for us to meet and enjoy as our members before us did. Take advantage of your club, Club Paesano, and all it has to offer! Thank you to all of you that keep this motor running and that keep us coming back for more! Enjoy one another and enjoy this summer. Have fun and be careful out there.
Salute,
Rick