April 2023 LaCarota
President’s Message:
Ciao, my fellow Club Paesano Members. As always, I hope that this month’s newsletter finds you all doing well. Happy, Healthy and Safe! Well, we finally hit the 1st day of Spring this week, but it seems that winter is trying to leave like a Lion! We’ve had snow and below average temps. I hope that it’s not a sign of things to come for this summer. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it’s a normal Spring and a normal Summer. The family and I are taking off to California for Spring break, so I’m hoping to have some nice weather while we are there. I hope that everyone is able to get out and enjoy themselves. Let’s put this winter behind us and look forward to the outdoors and our upcoming events and activities at the club.
Heritage Night:
Our Heritage Night will be held on Saturday April 15th. Doors will open at 5:30pm like our dances. Just like last year, our very own Greg DeMiestri has volunteered his talents and will cook us another fantastic meal. It will be served at your table and we will have multiple courses. If you came to our event last year, you know how delicious it was. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it! Like last year, I will be putting out some of our old Club Paesano memorabilia that we have up in our attic. I would also ask any of you that may have some old pictures or literature about the club or anything “Italian”, to please bring it in to share so we have more to read or view. I’d like to have some volunteers that would like to speak about the history of the club as well. Last year we had some speakers that told us about our CP history. How the club started and how it evolved into what we have today. Something to be very proud of for sure. Like every one of you, I’m so proud of my Italian heritage and would like to share it with my daughter and younger Italians too. We would never want to lose that! I know that we are all busy, and get caught up in things, but so far, I haven’t received any “RSVPs” yet. I know that we still have a few weeks to go, but I would like to get a head count by Sunday April 9th (Easter), so that Greg will have time to purchase the food. The price will be $15 per person (to cover some of the expense). You can bring in your own bottles of wine and the club will supply beer and soft drinks. This event will be for members and their families. Please let me know if you are able to say a few words as well. Send your RSVP’S to my email at [email protected] or feel free to call or text me at 503-891-7374 if you have any questions. Thank you and I hope to see you all there.
Spring Dance:
This year’s SPRING DANCE will be held on Saturday May 6th. Doors will open at 5:30pm as usual. Along with our “World famous” Spaghetti & Meatball dinner, our musical entertainment for our listening and dancing pleasure will be the “Big Bad Beat”. They performed for us at our Carnevale Dance last year, and had everyone out on the dance floor. Looking forward to having them back. Our charity partner will be “The Performing Arts Association” who are in Gresham. Tickets are on sale now on our website at www.clubpaesano.org so if you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, what are you waiting for? Don’t let your favorite table slip away. Buy your tickets now! This dance is pretty popular, so don’t delay. Please invite your families, friends, coworkers and anyone that is looking for a great night out. I will be promoting it at the Gresham Chamber as well. They have been a great partner, and they are always looking to help fellow chamber members. Let’s try to have a better Club Paesano member showing, then we did for the Carnevale dance. It’s Spring time! The weather will be great and it’s time to get out and enjoy the longer daylight. What a better way to break out of the winter blues, then to come and share a fun evening with your fellow CP members, family and friends. Like I mentioned in the last newsletter, if you can’t make it to the dance for some reason, then please give or sell your tickets to someone who you think would enjoy our event. Perhaps someone who has never been to one, but could potentially become a regular to our events. All it takes is that one time, and “Bam” they’re hooked! I’m looking forward to a sold-out event. Let’s do our best to make it happen! Thanks.
Fun Committee:
The Fun Committee is alive and well and still having our “Monday Night Social”. As I’ve stated in the past, if you haven’t been to one yet, you really should try attending if you can. You never know what may come out of it. We are always looking to try something new and for some ideas. For example, this past Monday night, we had a wine tasting. We all sipped on different wines and everyone brought some food to share. It was fantastic! Like I’m always saying, if you have a certain idea of something that you would like to see happen, come and speak to us and we’ll see if we can’t make it happen. The wine tasting idea stemmed from an idea that Chris Siri had. He wanted to purchase some different wines, both white and red to see if we couldn’t change up our offerings for our CP events. Chris purchased the wines and made comment sheets for all the wines, so we could tell him what we thought. We can now narrow it down and purchase what everyone liked. With the wine tasting, we asked everyone to bring a light dish that we could share and eat while sampling the different wines. We had different cheeses, cold cuts, prosciutto, salami, capocollo, veggies, polenta, boy was it good! It was an idea that came to be because someone took charge and spoke up. You can do the same. If you want to see an event happen with the Fun Committee, please bring us the idea, and be willing to put in a little leg work too. We are open to just about anything.
As you know, the “Fun Committee” is not restricted to just doing things at our lodge. We have done things outside of Cedarville too. Dinners at local restaurants, Christmas bazaars, Music venues, etc. We already have a couple of outings planned. Mark your calendars. Saturday May 20th, we will be heading to “Gather Arts” in Brush Prairie WA. This is a small farm that is owned and operated by Bridget and Mike Merrill. Jim Merrill’s son and daughter. Both of them grew up at the club. At their farm, they hold events for groups and clubs like ours. Some events that they do include painting, candle making, wine glass painting, charcuterie boards, etc. Our event will be “Wine glass painting” with arranging a charcuterie board. I thought that it would fit well with our Italian theme. This outing will be for members and a guest. The cost will be $25 per person which includes the painted glass that you will create, a charcuterie board, wine and snacks to munch on as we paint, and a specialty “Italian” drink created by Bridget just for us. She can fit about 30 people in her facility, so please “RSVP” an email back to me if you would like to go. This is 1st come 1st served so please don’t hesitate. I will remind you in the next newsletter and also send out a reminder email as the time gets closer. Other events that are being planned are, a “Vino Casino” outing, and a “Lemoncello” making class. There will be more info to follow on the last 2 events as we figure out all the details. Fun & Camaraderie is what we do, so if you want to have some, jump on board!
Bocce News:
For those of you that are current members of our Paesano Bocce Club, and for those of you that may be interested in playing, I’m happy to announce that we will be holding our 2023 Paesano Bocce Club’s Annual Kick Off Meeting on Thursday April 6th at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held at the club. We will be going over new rules, tournaments schedules, signing up teams and individuals. We would also like to welcome potential new members, and answer any questions that you may have. This meeting is open to anyone that is planning on playing and for those that are even just curious about playing. Our goal is to sign new members up and to grow our league, so even if you have never played before or don’t have a team to play with, we can help you with all of that! If you want to see what it’s all about, please go to our website at www.paesanobocceclub.com or feel free to speak with one of our board officers if you have any questions. Mario Pompei, Dino Gavazza, Doug Burchak, Kelly Barasch, or myself, will be more than willing to help you. We will be accepting membership dues that night as well, so if you can bring your payment to the meeting, we would appreciate that. You also have the option of paying your dues on our website too. Our beautiful courts are available for rentals as well, so if you know of any party or any business that would like to have a function using our courts, let us know, we can get you a price for the event. As I’ve mentioned several times, our bocce club is looking to put a roof over our 4, “World Class” bocce courts. This roof will be expensive, but is necessary so we can extend our play to all year, and we would be able to offer the courts up to many more events and potential rentals. We need your help. We have signs, banners, pavers and apparel for sale. All of these would make great gifts too. We will also accept any monetary donations of course. If you have, or work for a company that would like to donate, or even sponsor one of our tournaments or other bocce events, please let us know. Anything would be greatly appreciated!
LaCarota Question:
Well once again, we welcomed a new winner to the elite. Congratulations goes to “Pistol Pete” Rebagliati for winning our “Coveted” bottle of vino. His answer to my question was chosen as the winner. I wanted a comment on “What being a CP Member meant to you”. Of course, there were no wrong answers and I was impressed with the comments that I received and will share them in my “Final Thoughts” segment. With that, who will be our “Top Dog” this month. Will we again have someone new, or will the King return? Looks like Mr. Pompei is letting our fellow members back into the race. Can someone make an attempt at catching him? Jim Burch was getting close, but has been unlucky the last few months. Let’s see who will have the chance to win this month. So, here’s my question: “What are the top 3 Italian last names in the U.S.?” and they need to be in order. That’s it. Simple! All correct answers emailed to me will be entered to win. You can’t win, if you don’t play!
Thoughts and Prayers:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mario Pompei’s mother, Theresa Pompei. At 96 yrs. young, she is scheduled to have a pacemaker installed. She is in great spirits and is looking forward to hitting the ripe old age of 99. She says that she still has a lot of living to do! Amen to that! Please keep her in your prayers and here’s to a successful procedure and recovery. I’d also like to give a shout out to my dad, Romeo Cervi, who just turned 92 yrs. old, on the 20th. He is feeling great and is getting ready to put in his big garden and to go for his spring turkey hunt. I hope that I got those great genes from him and can still do that at his age! Joe Castellano, keep up the great job! He’s looking great and getting his life back to normal. Thank God and he thanks everyone for all the prayers and well wishes. If you would like me to add anyone to our prayer chain, please let me know, so I can include them.
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.
Final Thoughts:
As I mentioned in my “LaCarota” question, Last month I asked you to comment on “What being a Paesano member means to you?” I received some great comments that I would like to share. “Pride, support and participation”. Another was, “Club Paesano is an island of common sense and community”. “Enjoy events and camaraderie with people of like minds and common backgrounds and not having to take crap from anyone”. I thought that was funny! “A need to be around people socially. My world is not just family but is also about exploring other people, discovering mutual interest, having an adult beverage and living some fun moments with friends. That is what Club Paesano offered me. A chance to talk about my Italian heritage, play some bocce, meet and dance with friends and to go on adventures with people of mutual interest. And, if given the opportunity, share some of my expertise to help the club grow!” “My second La Famiglia”. “Pride, heritage and a sense of belonging”. These are the messages I get out of being a Club Paesano member too. Being with people that have common backgrounds and ideas. We are not always going to agree on things, and see eye to eye. Like big families, we may have a disagreement or even an argument, but like big loving families, we always hug and make up, and we don’t go to bed angry! Like a lot of you, this club has become a second family to me too. I have met some great people and have formed some fantastic friendships that I feel will last forever. We have a great membership, and I hope that it continues to grow. In good times and in bad, Club Paesano has stood the test of time by changing and advancing and we should all be grateful for being a part of it! I’m grateful that CP came into my life 7 years ago when my wife Diane signed me up to play bocce. I will continue to make it a part of my family. I hope you all do too.
Salute,
Rick