January 2025 LaCarota
President’s Message:
Ciao a tutti. MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year to one and all! My Goodness, we are now less than a week away! By the time you get this, you may be opening presents and getting ready to sit down to that magnificent meal that I spoke about in last month’s newsletter. Oh boy, I can’t wait! As always, I hope that this month’s “LaCarota” finds you all, Happy, healthy and safe! Have you all completed your Christmas shopping yet, or are you the last-minute shopper that likes to run through the mall and stores desperately grabbing at gifts that you think will work? Even though it’s last minute, there’s still some kind of “rush” about the whole thing! The sounds of Christmas carols and jingling bells in the air, with Santa and the St. Vincent’s kettle in the doorways. Crackling fires with castagne roasting and the fresh smell of Christmas trees. Ah Christmas is here! The favorite holiday of children and adults alike! “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Christ is Born today!”
January’s General Meeting Rescheduled:
January’s meeting will be rescheduled for Wednesday January 8th. The 1st Wednesday of January is New Year’s Day. Stay home and enjoy the start of 2025!
Club Paesano Christmas Dinner:
On Sunday December 8th, we celebrated Christmas all together in our typical CP manor. Great food, fun, and the arrival of good ol St. Nick himself. Our dinner was fantastic! Our caterer really makes sure that the food is tasty and they take the extra time to do things right. After all these years, they realize that the way to impress a true Italian is with fantastic food! Not only do we look, but we taste. And it better taste, as good as it looks! These guys have it dialed in and have been impressing us for the last several years. After our wonderful dinner, we had the honor of thanking our old board of directors, bringing in our new board and our newest installment of members. Both our new board, and our new members look great. There’s a lot of enthusiasm from both. I think that this is one of our largest crop of new members ever! 8 of them. It just goes to show you that there are Italians in the area, that still want to connect with their Italian heritage, and want to belong to the best Italian Club in the Pacific Northwest! Speaking of new members, I would like to thank Bridgett Merril-Haines, for already jumping in to help us out. Bridgett donated all of the beautiful centerpieces that were on each table. She made these herself, and we were able to raffle them off to make money for our CP Scholarship fund. How nice was that? Not even a day in and she’s already impressing the club! We thank you Bridgett!! We continued the night with our Christmas Carol sing along, with our all-time fan favorites, “Dominic the Christmas Donkey” and the ever popular “12 Days of Christmas”! It always gets our members going! The night was capped off by a visit by none other than Santa Claus himself. He landed on the rooftop and made his way into the lodge. He probably followed the wonderful aroma of our beautiful meal! The children were ecstatic and followed him onto the stage in hopes of getting a nice little gift and a Christmas picture. Santa didn’t disappoint! This was a terrific party to say the least and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing board members, welcome in the new BOD, members and our “Member of the Year”. Thank you to Geno Benagni, Carlos Barajas and Dominic Giusto, for your constant help and dedication to the CP Board. I thank you for all of your hard work and you will all be missed! I would like to welcome our newest board members, Vince Curletto, Debbie Calcagno Guthrie, and Greg DeMaestri. I look forward to working with you all and your new ideas. Welcome to our newest members. Micheal Merrill, Bridgett Merril- Haines, Vince Moore, Mario Mastrangelo, Lori Colbert, Steven Castellano, Ambrose (Ace) Calcagno and Lynn Piraino. We all welcome you into the family with open arms and look forward to your new ideas, energy and insight. Last but not least, our “Member of the Year”. The night would not be complete without this announcement. This year’s recipient was none other than our guy, and keeper of the cash,,, John Kern! John Kern has always been there for our club. Not only does he do our checks and balances, and has been our Treasurer for a million years, but he is always there to set up and tear down for every event. He’ll also spend hours at our front door or gate collecting money for our events. John is the epitome of what it means to be a great CP Member. This is always a tough pick every year, because there are a lot of members that step up every year and sometimes it is very close, but I’d have to say, “Johnny boy, you deserve it! Thank you!” I’d also like to give a quick shout out to my lovely daughter Adriana, for manning the children’s section and keeping them entertained. We all appreciate you!
Another great Christmas Dinner in the books. Thanks to all of you that came out and enjoyed the evening.
CP Scholarship & Fundraiser:
During our Christmas dinner, we did raise money that will go towards our Scholarship fund, thanks to Bridgett Merril- Haines and her donations of the centerpieces that we raffled off and thank you to my wonderful wife Diane for manning the raffle table all night. On Sunday March 16th, we will have our official Scholarship fundraiser. It will include a dinner of some kind and a raffle/ silent auction. Please help us in procuring items for this. Gift baskets, gift certificates, sporting or concert tickets, tools, vacation homes, lessons & classes, wine bottles etc., etc. Anything that can be raffled or auctioned off will be accepted. There’s no time like the present to start collecting these items. Of course, cash donations will always be accepted! If you have any of these things to donate, please get in touch with me and I will be happy to meet you to collect. I thank you in advance. We would like to give away another 3 scholarships, just like we did last year, and if we are able to raise more money, that will make each of the scholarships worth more as well! Let’s go, my fellow members! This is for our youth and their education. After all, they will be our future leaders! Let us do all that we can to help them. The applications will be ready to go very soon and will be available on our Club Paesano website. I will let you all know when they are ready. If you have a child, grandchild or family member that is eligible, then I highly recommend you getting them an application as every bit helps! We will announce and present our recipients the scholarships, at our “LaPolenta Dinner” on Wednesday June 4th. Please help out with auction items, and stay tuned for the application news. Thank you.
Paesano Bocce News:
Well, there’s not too much bocce being played now because of the season, but we still have a bit of news. Our board of directors is working on plans for our new 501-C3 Non-Profit status, fundraising and our upcoming 2025 schedule for both leagues and tournaments. It’s a very exciting time for our bocce club and great to be a part of. Expansion of our leagues and the plans of getting our beautiful “World Class” courts covered with a roof. This will not only extend our bocce play, but will put us on the national scene of the bocce world. Getting National teams to play here would not only be a fantastic thing for Paesano bocce, but would also help out the surrounding community. There’s a lot of players from around the nation that would love to travel to the PNW, to not only play bocce but explore the state, as many of them have never been out this way! It would be a great notch in our Bocce Belts! We are always looking for donations and if you are lucky enough to have money that needs to be donated to a nonprofit this year, before Uncle Sam dings you on your taxes, we are the exact place that you are looking for. We will be happy to write you a donation form for your taxes. If you are in that position and would like to divert some monies into our nonprofit, please contact Mario Pompei, myself or one of our other board members. We’ll be more than happy to help you! As always, we do have some items that would make great gifts or will help you to rep the club. Apparel, personalized pavers, signs and advertising. Rentals of the courts are always available too. If playing bocce is something that you may be interested in, please let one of us know. We will be happy to answer any questions that you may have, and will help you to get signed up if you want to join. We had a very good year, let’s do everything possible to keep it going onward and upwards! Thank You!
Thoughts & Prayers:
I’d like to extend our condolences to our member Donna Sinsiri- Howard, whose husband Mark passed away suddenly and unexpectedly last month. Please reach out to her. I’m sure that she could use some friendship and an ear to bend at this very difficult time. I would also like to send our condolences to long time Festa committee member and Daughter of the “Sons & Daughters of Italy” Vancouver branch, Barbara Blair. Barbara was a great representative of the Italian community in this area. As I said, she was a Festa rep, that was at every event selling Festa and Italian apparel. Barbara was always a staple at both the Festa and the “Sons & Daughters of Italy”, and will be missed by many! If you have anyone that you would like me to add to our T&P section and prayer chain, please let me know as soon as possible so I can add it to the next newsletter.
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.
LaCarota Question:
Well, well, well. Once again last month, we had a new competitor rise from the depths to reach up and snatch that ever so coveted bottle of vino from the open hands of his opposition. He came from nowhere, to steal the bottle and “Slam Dunk” it home for the win! Congratulations go out to John “Cash King” Kern! Way to go Johnny Ola, the new King of the Vino Prizeola! Let’s see if John will be a “One hit wonder” or will he continue to represent himself as the “King of the ring”!
Seeing that Christmas is only a few days away, and last month’s question had to do with a favorite Christmas treat, let’s keep the Christmas theme going. After all, whoever gets tired of Christmas! This month’s question is this. I want you to give me your interpretation of the “Feast of the Seven Fishes”. Any adequate answer will do within reason. Anything close will be entered to win. Let’s see who will be the 1st winner of 2025. Who knows, you might become a “LaCarota” question in the future, if you do win. All answers will be entered to win the bottle of Vino. Good luck!
Final Thoughts:
Well, I have to admit, I really thought that this was going to be my last “LaCarota” newsletter, but guess what, you’re all going to have to deal with my newsletters for another 12 months! LoL! I hope you don’t mind, but that’s the way it goes. I’m really honored to have been elected again to represent you all and our wonderful club. As always, I will do my best to make you all proud, and to always keep this club of ours moving in a positive direction. I will strive to do more and to keep the club relevant. I’m very proud of what we have accomplished in my last 4 years as your president, and look forward to making this coming year one of the best yet. I look forward to working with our new board and with all of you to bring in new ideas, and some new perspectives. I’m constantly seeing growth and a steady popularity of Club Paesano, which makes me know that we are doing something right! I also look forward to getting more members involved and to take on bigger roles. As I have always said in the past, this club cannot continue to run off the backs of a certain few. If you want to continue to be here, then you should get involved. You don’t have to wait to be asked, just step up and ask, or do. New ideas are always welcomed and I always invite you to come and speak with me or anyone on the board. If you want to see an idea come to life, please feel free to ask for help, and we will help you. I will help you! I’ve had a great time and will continue to have a great time being your President, but eventually this torch will have to be passed on to another member, who will love and respect this club, and want to see it keep moving forward and upward. I know that a few of you have what it takes, and I will be willing to help and guide you if that’s what you would like. The future of this club depends on it! With all that being said, thank you and I won’t let you down. Please enjoy your families, friends and all of the loved ones in your life at this special time of the year. Enjoy your gifts, meals and good times, but let’s never forget the true meaning of Christmas! Christ is born! Please have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I’m looking forward to a very prosperous 2025! Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo!
Ti Saluto.
Rick