July 2025 LaCarota
*Note* There will be a Members Monthly meeting on Wednesday July 2nd!
Presidents Message:
Hello everyone. As always, I hope that this month’s newsletter finds you all, happy, healthy, and safe! My favorite season, summer is officially here in 2 days, and I couldn’t be happier! Warmer days and nights with the longer days, just make me a happy man. I hope that you all are taking advantage of the season too. I’m working down south in Medford and am getting to see more of what this beautiful state has to offer. I’ve been here for 29 years now but have yet to see a lot of Oregon. If you’re into nature, it’s fantastic. Sometimes we get into that rut of working long hours, days, weeks, months, then years. Time goes by and we realize, where did it go? Seeing new things makes me realize that it’s worthwhile taking time out to explore, discover new things and just enjoy, without worrying about work and money all the time. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d be the 1st person to say, “You need that money”, but you also have to take time out for yourself and your families too. As one once told me, “You need balance in your life, Ricky!” You know something, I absolutely agree, and as I get older, I’m realizing that more and more. Balance, the key to longevity! Let’s all try that. Enjoy your life, and everything that it brings you. Just do it!
Polenta Dinner / Scholarship Presentation:
On Wednesday June the 4th, in lieu of our regularly scheduled CP Monthly Member’s meeting, we had our annual Polenta dinner and now our annual CP Scholarship Presentation. We invited all Italians in the area. We also presented scholarships for the 2nd year in a row now. Once again, our dinner was delicious, and we had a great turnout with some members from other clubs. The Sons & Daughters of Italy from Vancouver represented well. We also had the families from our Scholarship winners join us for dinner and the presentation. All our candidates were so talented, and it was a very hard choice to pick just 3. Because we had some extra money in the funds, we decided to award 4 this year. We will always try to give at least 3 scholarships away every year, but if we can raise more, and there is a close decision again, we will try to give out more. Our scholarship fund is always looking to raise money for it, so if you are in the giving mood, we will always take a donation. Please see me or John Kern. Thanks again to Marc Battilega, Greg & Gianni DeMaestri for running the kitchen, and all the members who came in early to help set up and stayed to help clean up. Like a family event, it couldn’t have been done without all of you that participated. Thanks again to our Scholarship committee as well. We are already starting to work for next year’s batch of talented Italian students. Congratulation again to 2025 winner’s, Brady Angelo, Amelia Anderson, Stephen Crover and Nicolas Michaud. Our talented future!
Concert in the Park:
On Saturday August 2nd, we will have our 9th annual “Concert in the Park”. Like all our events so far this year, you can expect another change! With this year’s event, we will incorporate an all-day event! We will start the day off with a Farmer’s Market, run by our newest members, Bridget Merrill- Haines & Micheal Merrill which will lead into our Charity, “Calabarzon’s” musical event and fundraiser. After that, we will roll into our Club Paesano’s “Concert in the Park”. What a day we have in store for you! My advice to you all is to just take the day off and make it a “Club Paesano” Day & Night! Come in the morning to enjoy and purchase your fares at the Farmer’s Market followed by a Filipino lunch and concert. Taking a small break, to return and be thoroughly taken care of by our Club Paesano’s Concert in the Park, where you will eat a fantastic dinner then be entertained by the talented “5 Guys Named Moe”, who will have you dancing all night long! What a day! All taking place in the beauty that is Cedarville Park. I couldn’t think of a better place to hold such an event! The space, the trees, the fantastic food and entertainment. Where else can you go to enjoy such a diverse event with market, food and entertainment. What a melting pot of FUN! Our Concert in the Park will start at 4:30pm and will run till 11pm as usual but I am encouraging you all to please enjoy the whole experience that we are putting together for you! A farmer’s market, Mid-day concert and evening concert, with food, and drink to go along with it for the whole day!
With all that is happening and since this will be an all-day affair, I am declaring this to be an “ALL HANDS ON” event. We will need help from everyone, and any little thing that you can do will help. This is our club and our event. Let’s please do everything we can to help, volunteer and make this one of our best events to date! Everything we do is for our members and our club. I will get our “Volunteer Coordinators” very soon. Once they are announced, I would like for all of you that will be in town and attending to reach out to them to pick a position that you would like to work. Please help them, and let them know what rolls you can take to make this event great. If you don’t contact them, then they will be contacting you all. I want to see you all have fun and enjoy yourself. I want to see you with your families and all of your guests that you invite, but we will still need some help in putting this whole day together. Do your part, then enjoy the rest of the day. That’s all we need! More info will be forwarded to you all via email and July’s meeting. Let’s all have a great time, and also showcase our beautiful club and all that Club Paesano / Cedarville Park has to offer to our friends! Go to clubpaesano.org to purchase your tickets now for this day packed with fun! More info to follow.
Concert in the Park update: Concert tickets NOW AVAILABLE! Please go to our website at www.clubpaesno.org to get yours now. This is an all ages, “Family Friendly” event. We even lowered the price for children who are between 6 and 12 years of age to $10. Children 5 yrs and younger get in free. We will have kid’s activities to keep them all busy throughout the day. Kelly Barasch (971-806-9524) has once again stepped up to be our “Volunteer Coordinator”. Kelly and I will be putting together a sign-up sheet with the schedules of shifts and duties. I will announce it at our next meeting on Wednesday July 2nd. Once again, this is an “ALL HANDS ON “Event. If you are in town, please plan on attending and volunteering some time. All of you are needed. Don’t forget to invite everyone you know. Let’s make a new attendance record! It will be FUN!
Paesano Bocce Club:
Well, it’s hard to believe, but the Paesano Bocce season has already completed its 3rd week of play. We were waiting for it with so much anticipation, and low and behold we are hot and heavy into another season. Like the seasons before, our league continues to grow and has continued to provide us with better and better play. From our Monday night advanced to our Thursday night beginners, the quick improvement of talent and gamesmanship is very impressive to say the least. I’m impressed that even the newer players have locked into the game and their competitive sides are starting to show. Every night is fun, and our board continues to get such great feedback from so many of our members. Competition is great but the comradery, good times and laughter is what impresses me the most! Almost every night we’ll get a handful of people who are riding or walking on the Springwater trail stop by to see what all the fun is about. If you are interested in playing and being a part of all the fun, we still have opportunities for you to play. Most of our teams for the summer league are established, but we have a substitute list that you can get on, or you can sign up for one of our many tournaments throughout this summer. Please go to our website to check out our league and tournament schedules and everything else that’s bocce related. We always have room for more! If you need more information, please feel free to reach out to one of our board members.
Mario Pompei, myself, Kelly Barasch, Doug Burchak. Lori DeMaestri or Paul Barasch. We’ll be happy to help you out. As you all know, we are still trying to construct a roof to cover our 4 beautiful “World class” courts. We found out this year, that “Permits” are very expensive, so we aren’t as close as we thought we were, but we keep working hard to raise funding for this project. Every little bit helps! Any monetary donation will help tremendously. We are now officially a 501-C3 Non-Profit, so you can write off your donation on your taxes. We will give you a receipt. We also have a lot of Bocce merchandise and Swag, so if you want to look cool with the latest Paesano Bocce apparel, we’ll get you hooked up! We are still selling our personalized pavers which puts your name on our courts forever but also make a fantastic gift. If you walk around our courts, you will see them laid out. I’m very proud of being a part of our bocce club and would encourage you to come out and try it if you haven’t yet. I guarantee that you’ll have a great time!
Club Paesano Dues:
Our CP dues for 2025 are due on June 1st. Please contact our treasurer, John Kern to make arrangements for payments. Also please take care of any past payments of dues or dance tickets that you may still owe from our past events and 2024. Please take care of it sooner than later so John doesn’t have to chase you. John is a very busy man so let’s make it easy for him!
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 sdpetruzelli@comcast.net .
Thoughts & Prayers:
Thoughts and prayers go out to Greg DeMaestri’s (Lori – wife) Father in-law Tom Jorgensen. He’s been in and out of hospice but is holding on to life. Definitely a trooper that loves his family and isn’t ready to leave yet. Please keep him in your prayers. As always let’s pray for our CP members and their families. May the Lord keep all of us happy and healthy. If you would like me to add a family member or friend, please contact me before the end of the month so I can get it added.
LaCarota Question:
I haven’t picked a winner for last month yet because of our Polenta dinner but I had some of you answer last month’s question. I will draw June’s winner at our July meeting, so if you answered last month and you are going to answer this month’s question you just may be lucky enough to win double the Vino! Maybe you’ll even start up the winner’s ladder and try to catch up to high rankers, Like King Mario, Chris Siri, Jimmy Burch and so on. Get into the Winner’s Circle! You can’t win if you don’t play!
As we are having our Concert in the Park next month, August 2nd, my question has to do with the event that preceded The Concert in the Park. What Italian event at the park preceded the Concert in the Park? Please give me the exact name of the event and when it was started.
That’s it. Easy Peezy get a bottle of wine. Maybe even two! All correct answers will be entered to win the coveted bottles of wine.
Final Thoughts:
In last month’s newsletter, I asked you to think about what being a Paesano meant to you and the reasons why you became a member of our club. There are all kinds of reasons I’m sure, but hopefully the main on was to be with fellow Italians, to carry on old and new traditions and to maintain and secure this club for as long as we can. This club was started in 1955. That was 70 years ago. Our goal as existing and new members should be to make it last another 70 years and beyond! Let us enjoy it and let our families that come after us enjoy it too. Of course, changing with the times is always in the cards and I believe that we have been and have been more aggressive about changing things up. Our events, our membership and always having the foresight to try something new. May we always stay flexible and roll with anything new that may come our way. In other words, may Club Paesano live on forever! Here’s to Paesano’s all over the world.
Ti Salute,
Rick