May 2025                                                       LaCarota

President’s Message:

Ciao a tutti. How is everyone doing? As always, I hope that this month’s newsletter finds you all doing great. Happy, healthy, and safe! What fantastic weather we have been having. I hope that you are all getting a chance to take advantage of it. Just in time for Easter too. It is a beautiful time of the year. Hopefully “Peter Cotton Tail” will come around leaving loads of chocolates for all our little ones. Then us adults can burn calories chasing them around as they get on their “Sugar rushes” and go like the Energizer bunny! Maybe you can get them to take care of some of your projects while they are at it. LoL! I am currently working out of town, so I’ll be using my weekends to start springtime projects and to take care of household necessities. Hopefully by next month it will be time to get a garden in. If the weather keeps cooperating, we should be good to go but you never know. Will it be “In like a lion, out like a lamb” or vice versa. We will soon see!

Spring Dance:

Our Spring Dance will be taking place on Saturday May 17^th. Doors open at 5:30pm. Like our Carnevale Dance in February, we are going to change things up a little more for this Spring Dance, we will be going with a “Country – Western” theme. Our live band is the “Sweetwater Band” and they have a whole list of country favorites, both modern and older that they will be playing along with an array of top 40 and dance music that they will entertain us with. Marc Battilega will also be changing up the menu slightly. Our members have spoken and our board is listening! We are continuing to evolve and change in some ways, and are trying to keep the things that have been successful too. We are trying to give everyone what they would like. I personally like a good Paesano get together! With that being said, let’s do the same in return as members. Let’s get our tickets and attend the party. Invite family, friends and anyone that just loves having a FUN TIME! If you cannot make it for some reason then please gift your tickets to a couple of people that will love it and hopefully become regulars at our events. We all need to chip in and do our best to make all our events successful. Please go to our website at www.clubpaesano.org to purchase your tickets now before your favorite seats get taken. This promises to be a great time! Our Charity for this dance will be the Paesano Bocce Club. As many of you know, the bocce club is currently raising funds to be able to build a roof over our 4 beautiful courts that we currently have. Your support will be appreciated. The Bocce club will have a Raffle/ Auction to raise funds, so if anyone has something that they can donate to it, we would appreciate that. If you have an item to donate, please contact me via phone, text or email and we can arrange to meet, or you can always drop it off at the club. As always, setup will be that Saturday morning at 9am. The more people that come to help, the quicker and easier it will be. If you are available on the Wednesday May 14th at 8am to help Marc make sauce at the club, I’m sure that he will appreciate it. We’d all appreciate it! Remember get your tickets now, and help to make this a SELLOUT!

Club Paesano Scholarship:

The deadline to get applications submitted for our scholarship is Wednesday April 30^th. This is a great opportunity for any senior that you may know to take advantage of. Every little bit helps when you are going into college, trade school or university. Our club will be giving away 3 scholarships of $1000 each to our deserving applicants. So far we only have a handful of students that have submitted their apps, so if you do know someone that would qualify, please have them go to our website at www.clubpaesano.org They can download the forms and get them back to us before the deadline. Our Scholarship committee will go over each one and pick out the best 3 applicants out of the bunch. I’m sure that it will be a tough decision again like last years. Special thanks to our committee. Dino Gavazza, Phil Potestio, Vince and Kristy Curletto, Anna and Reza Nassib, Donna Sinsiri- Howard, and myself, Rick Cervi.

Paesano Bocce Club;

Well, it is getting to be that time of the year. Our 2025 Bocce league season is just around the corner. Can you smell it? I personally cannot wait! I’ve been playing all winter, and I still can’t wait. The anticipation of another fantastic season awaits all of us players. If you are not a bocce member yet, what are you waiting for? It’s one of the best sports you’ll ever play. From a distance, it looks like an easy game, but if you get on a court, you’ll find out differently. I’m not trying to scare anyone, I’m just saying that it’s a little more involved and it takes a little more skill than it seems, however, it’s a game that anyone can play. Young, old, athletic, or not, man, women or child, there’s a spot for anyone and with 4 league nights that will cover every skill level, there is really no excuse not to join us. It’s a night to get out of the house for a few hours and to have some fun with a great group of people. If you are not a member yet and need to get out there to roll a few balls to see if you will like it, please come to our Meet and Greet on Sunday May 18^th at 8am. This will give you the opportunity to learn the game and get to play with players of all skill sets. A great way to feel it out and to see if the sport is for you. We would love to have you there. If you need any other information or just want to check out anything Paesano Bocce, please visit our website at www.paesanobocceclub.com or feel free to speak to any of our board of directors or our current members. As you all know Paesano Bocce will be the charity partner for our Spring Dance. As a member of the bocce club, it would be great if you and your team could attend the dance to show support but also put a basket or some kind of donation package together for us to be able to raffle or auction off. It could be anything and of any value. Our hope is to raise more funds to start building our roof to cover our World Class courts! We are officially a 501-C3 now, so any type of donation can be written off on your taxes. Again, anything will help, and I hope to see all of our bocce members at our Spring dance. Remember to go to our website at www.clubpaesano.org to purchase your tickets today.

If you have never played and want to try it out before embarrassing yourself, Mario will be glad to show you how it’s played. Email Mario at [email protected].

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] .

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;

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of another great man, friend, and member of Club Paesano, Ron Dove. There will be a funeral service at St John the Baptist Church, Friday May 16^th. Rosary at 12:30 PM and Funeral Mass at 1:00 PM followed by a reception at the Church Hall. 10956 SE 25th Ave, Milwaukie, OR 97222. R,I.P. Ron!

I found out last month, that if we have a member that passes away, we can request that the club make a donation to that member’s favorite charity. That would include a member’s spouse as well. Please contact John Kern or myself for more details or to make a donation. Let us send out huge thoughts and prayers to all of our members and their families both past and present!! Especially at this Easter season!

LaCarota Question;

Well now, look who’s powering through the ranks and becoming a powerhouse in the world of Club Paesano Wine Winning! Chris “Superfly” Siri, has solidified his place in our circle of winners. Look out Mario “POM,,,,PEI”. Just when you thought that you were safe to answer another question…. Look out, brother Mario, Chris is on the prowl with the Champ in his sight! Just goes to prove that you can’t win if you don’t play. Is there anyone of you that would like to knock these guys off their pedestals? If there is, then you’ll take a shot at this month’s question. Seeing that Easter is a few days away, my question will be about our holiday. Here it is. “What is your (or families) best Easter tradition?” I know that depending on what region of Italy your family is from, it can vary, but never the less, I want to hear about it. There is no wrong answer. I’ve made it pretty simple. Mario and Chris need some competition! Jim Burch, are you still out there? Dino Gavazza, our very 1^st wine winner. Johnny Kern, where are you all? Is there a newbie that would like to make a name for themselves? Anyone of you can win our coveted bottle of vino, but you have to answer! All answers will be entered into the drawing at our next meeting.

Member Recognition;

I’d like to give a special shout out and say congratulations to our very own Greg DeMaestri. Greg just opened his new catering business called “Banchetto” which in Italian means “a Celebratory meal”.  Greg is now up and running so if you are in need of a fantastic caterer for your next event, please give Greg a try. If you’ve been to some of our club events where Greg has prepared our meals, then you know what he brings to the table and the wonderful meal that you will receive. Please go to his website at “Banchetto.biz” and check it out. It’s always nice for members to support other members! Good luck in your new in devour Greg!

Final Thoughts;

I’ve been working out of town for the last month, so I don’t have a lot of my notes and my personal computer with me, to look at past newsletters and to add new things, but I know that I’m running out of time to make sure that our newsletter gets out, so if I’ve missed anything this month, please forgive me and I will get it all in for the next newsletter. I just want to give a shout out to all of our members and their families on this Holy week and this coming Easter Sunday. I will be glad to be at home to celebrate with my family and close friends. Being on the road really makes you think about how much you miss your home and family. I have been coming home on the weekends but it’s not the same as being there all the time. Luckily, it’s not a permanent thing and hopefully life will be back to normal soon. Not only do I miss my family, but I also miss being with my Paesano family, and our club activities. A break is good, but you also get used to traditional things as well and any disruption puts things out of kilter. Enjoy this Easter holiday with all of your loved ones. Have a great time together, but let’s never forget the reason we celebrate. He has risen, he has risen! Halleluiah! He died for our sins. Let us do right by our lord and savior! God Bless you and your families. Buona Pasqua to you and yours!

Ti Salute,

Rick

April 2025                                               La Carota

President’s Message:

Hello everyone. Ciao a tutti. I hope that this month finds you all, Healthy, happy, and safe! How are you all doing? Getting ready for Spring, I hope. We “Sprung forward” a week ago, so hopefully we have all had a chance to get use to the time change and that our internal clocks have caught up! I cannot believe how fast March is going by. In the blink of an eye, we are already past the midway point of the month! The trees are starting to flower and some of the plants are starting to bloom. Spring is in the air, it is very close and I can’t wait. Although March can be tricky weather wise, I think that we can kiss winter goodbye and good riddance! Here’s to Spring Break, longer and warmer days to come. Spring cleaning and the start of gardening are around the corner. I hope that you all will enjoy it. “Catch you outside!”

Carnevale Dance:

On Saturday March 1st, we celebrated our annual Carnevale Dance. It was a great night of eating, dancing, and supporting a terrific charity. Our attendance was a little over 150. It could have been higher, but I guess that is not too bad for a winter’s night. I would have liked to have seen more Paesano’s in attendance though. Our dinner did not disappoint, and as usual Marc Battilega and his family knocked it out of the park. The crowd loved it and that is why I like to add “World Famous” Spaghetti & Meatball dinner! We went with a DJ at this dance, and it was a hit. Our DJ’s played everything that our guests requested and were very interactive with them out on the dance floor. They were very entertaining and not too loud! Everyone appreciated that. Our charity partner “Creations for Cures” and their founder Renee Deifendofer had a silent auction, and they did very well. Our Paesano’s and the rest of our guests were very generous in bidding, and they were able to raise $4700. That is fantastic! Renee could not thank us enough and told me that that is the most money that they’ve ever raised in one event. We, as Paesano’s should be enormously proud that we helped out such a worthwhile charity. They cannot wait to come back and partner with us again. I personally would love to see them come back again. Special thanks to everyone that came out to make sauce, set up, help run the bar, and tear down at the end of the night. You know who you are, and I thank you all! If I try to name you all, inevitably I will forget to mention someone. I appreciate you all and I thank you!

CP Scholarship Fundraiser:

This past Sunday, the 16th of March, we had our first official Club Paesano Scholarship Fundraiser”. It was our first, because last year we combined it with our “Heritage Night” dinner. This year’s dinner was about raising funds for the Scholarship. Our committee worked very hard to put this together and procure items for our silent auction. We ended up with a lot of nice auction items. The attendance was low, but the few of us that were there ended up making up for it. We were able to raise about $2200 that evening, which will enable us to cover the funds for this year’s 3 scholarships and to get a start next year. I’d like to thank our committee for all that they’ve done and all that they will do once the applications start rolling in. If you know a Senior (of Italian descent) that will be furthering their education after high school, please have them apply for one of the 3 scholarships that we will be giving out. They will be valued at $1000 each. They can go to our website at www.clubpaesano.org to apply. Please make sure to tell them that the deadline has been extended to April 30th and ignore the March 30th date that is on there right now. Again, I’d like to thank the committee of Dino Gavazza, Vince and Kristy Curletto, Anna and Rezza Nassib, Phil Potestio, Donna Sinsiri – Howard and myself, for working so hard to make this happen. We should all be very proud of this accomplishment. I’d like to give Vince Curletto a special shoutout to be able to get us $1000 from Weston Kia. That will be added to the $2000 that we made at the dinner. What a great gift! If you are in need of a new vehicle, please go visit Vince and the Weston family. They’re a fine group for sure! I’d also like to once again thank Marc Battilega for running the kitchen and keeping our guests fed and coming back for more! The scholarships will be handed out at our Polenta Dinner that will be held on Wednesday, June the 4th at 6pm. It will take the place of our regular monthly meeting. More info on the dinner will be provided in next month’s newsletter. Thanks again for your support!

Spring Dinner & Dance:

 “YEEHAA!” Our Spring Dinner & Dance will be held on Saturday May 17th from 5:30pm till 11pm. We’ll be changing things up and going “Country Western”. An Italian Spaghetti Western! I wouldn’t go that far, but there will be a different feeling to it. Our dinner will be pasta and sausage, and our entertainment will be “The Sweetwater Band”, a Country Western band that can also play some top 40 dance hits as well. They are a very versatile band and sound great! Tickets are on sale now, so please go to our website at www.clupaesano.org to purchase your tickets now. Don’t wait as this dance will be a “Sellout” for sure! Please invite your family, friends, coworkers, neighbors and anyone else that will enjoy a great time! As always, I encourage you to sell or give your tickets away to people that you think that may enjoy and become regulars at our events, if you are not able to attend. Please don’t let the tickets go to waste as it’s great for promoting our club and our events! Again, get your tickets now before they run out! See ya there Partner!

Paesano Bocce News:

Spring is here and bocce is in the air! There’s no playing at our courts yet, but some of us have been fortunate enough to be able to play at other facilities and are able to practice during the winter months.I look forward to all of us being able to play and practice year round once we get the roof built over our courts. As you all know by now, Paesano Bocce has officially become a 501-C3 and we are looking to take in donations that can be written off on your taxes. If you have money that you need to donate somewhere before good ol Uncle Sam takes it, then we are the place for you.

Please get in touch with one of our board members for more information. We are planning on a busy 2025 season with league nights and tournament play. Please go to our website at www.paesanobocce.com for our schedule of events and if you are interested in joining our leagues. We are always happy to bring in new members, whether you are experienced or even if you have never played the game before, we will accommodate everyone! We have a league night for you. If you don’t see what you are looking for on our website, please feel free to reach out to one of our board members to answer any questions or for clarification. Our 2025 Board of Directors are, Mario Pompei – President / Rick Cervi – V.P. & Treasurer / Paul Baracsh – Director of 501-C3 Non Profit / Kelly Baracsh –  Secretary / Doug Burchak – Court Maintenance / Lori DeMeastri – Officer. Anyone of us will be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Some of us were lucky enough to go see our friends from the north and get to play in their tournament in Auburn, WA. We consider them family, but when it comes to bocce, it’s Oregon vs Washington. We are friendly, but have a great rivalry going, when we are on the courts! This tournament did not disappoint with the Paesano Bocce Club capturing most of the medals. We went in with a mission and accomplished most of it! Congratulations to all that made the trek up there and participated. It’s very important that we here in PNW support each other. Thank you to Greg Singleton and Sal Cascone of the Auburn Bocce Club for putting on a great tournament and making us feel at home. If you are interested in a sign to hang on our fence, advertisement, personal pavers and bocce swag, please go to our website at www.paesano bocce.com 

Thoughts & Prayers:

Our thoughts & Prayers go out to all of our members and their families. May God bless you all and keep you healthy, happy and safe! If you want me to add anyone to our Thoughts & Prayers, please let me know as soon as possible so I can add them to our segment.

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. 

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. 

LaCarota Question:

Proving that you can’t win if you don’t play, Johnny “Deep Pockets” Kern came from out of nowhere like a thief in the night, to snatch up the coveted bottle of vino to add to his collection. John has also been another player that’s been getting his answers in and has been in the hunt every month. He is a competitor for sure! Congratulations “Deep Pockets”! Will John keep his streak alive, or will he be a “One Hit Wonder” for the quarter? What do the rest of you say? Can one of you step up to become the newest contender? We shall see! So, this month’s question has to do with the arrival of Spring time and how they celebrate it in Italy. My question is; Name the 3 biggest “Springtime” Festivals that take place in Italy. There are a few, but I want the 3 biggest and most famous! That is it. Simple! All correct answers will be entered to win the Holy Grail. Again, you cannot win if you don’t play, so play!! Good luck.

Final Thoughts:

As we fall into the season of lent with Easter soon to come, let’s never forget the reason for the season. Our Lord and God sent his only son Jesus Christ, to us to be sacrificed to save our souls. The ultimate sacrifice! Sacrificing your own child to forgive the sins of mankind. I could not imagine it. If you are religious or even if you are not, let’s always remember the sacrifices that our parents and relatives made for us. Every generation, no matter how old, made some kind of sacrifice that has put us in the position that we are in today. Of course, we will make sacrifices of our own for the betterment of our families and theirs to come. May we always remember to take care of ourselves but to also take care of those that need it most. May it be family, friends or even a stranger, lets always try to turn a sacrifice into a positive. Here’s to our Lord and Savior’s sacrifice and rising! Take this time to love your loved ones and help those in need! Buona Pasqua to all! Ti Salute.

Ciao, Rick

March 2025                                      LaCarota

President’s Message:

Ciao a tutti! How are you all doing? As always, I hope that you are all happy, healthy and safe! Are you all feeling healthy and is everyone following through with their New Year’s resolutions? Are you in the gym, pumping iron, doing cardio, Zumba classes or just including a brisk walk, here and there? Go for a walk with the dog and a friend, and get to know one another better. We want to see you all around for a long time! We really got our 1st cold snap of the year today, which is supposed to carry on for the next few days. 25 degrees and lower at night. No thank you! I would love to spend my winters in Arizona, Texas or any other southern state with heat! You all know my story by now, and if you do, you all know, I am the son of the sun and heat. Canada was just a cover up for me! LoL! Anyway, stay warm, and hopefully we’ll see the thermometer rise in the up-and-coming months! Here’s to the sun and sand. Who’s with me?

Club Paesano “Big Game Watch Party”;

On Sunday February 9th, we hosted our annual “Big Game Watch Party”. As usual, it did not disappoint. Our guests came in and enjoyed the festivities! Club Paesano offered up an “All you can eat” buffet, with all of our favorite Super Bowl food favorites. Pizza, Chicken wings, Italian sausage with peppers and onions, chili dogs, nacho bar, nuts, chips, etc. We sold tickets for $15. Where else could you go to watch the game, eat, drink and have tons of FUN, and bet on the game? No where!! If you weren’t able to make it in 2025, please get your family and friends together for next year’s event in February. It proved to be a great time, over and over again! The best deal in town, for sure! Special thanks to Marc Battilega once again for manning the kitchen by himself and keeping our guests fed. Marc went out to purchase all of the food, came in on Saturday to prep, then cooked it all up and kept it coming for hours! Our guests were very impressed with the spread. Thank you, Marc! Also thank you to Jimmy Calcagno, Mario Pompei for working the bar with me. Geno Benagni for making and manning the betting table. John Benagni for your tech support. Kelly Barasch for selling swag, Dino Garvazza and Chris Siri as well. As always, we thank our Treasurer and constant doorman Johnny Kern, for working the door and taking admission all game. Washing pots and pans too! We couldn’t do it without you all. Thank you for getting there early and making it run. I’d also like to thank all of the members that came out and brought guests. Every little bit helps to make our events a success! Thank you!

Carnevale Dance:

On Saturday March 1st, we will be celebrating our annual Carnevale Dinner & Dance. We are changing things up a small bit. At this dance our entertainment will be a pair of DJs. DJ Destiny & DJ Mark Lion. We’ve been wanting to try this for a while now. The DJ will offer more variety and flexibility as far as the music they play. They can take just about any request and this pair knows how to work a crowd! I would like nothing better than to see our older members out on the dance floor, dancing to a nice Italian waltz or polka. Perhaps the “Chicken Dance”? I feel like they never get a chance to get out there and shake a tailfeather because our bands have a set list which is usually just top 40 dance hits. I’m very confident that we’ll still have a great time and it will be as fun as usual. Don’t fear though, the rest of our events will have live entertainment. I feel that we are at a point and time where we need to start trying different things at our events. We need to spark new interest and get all of you out to support all of our events and have fun! Please invite family and friends and let’s make every one of our events a SELLOUT! There really should be no reason why they all are not! I really want you all to come out to this one, obviously to support one of our events, but to also support our charity partner. “Creations for Cures” will be our partner for this dance. They are based in Gresham and when I met with their founder and survivor Renee Deifendorfer, I knew that this was a special one. Their cause really pulls at my heartstrings, and should pull at yours as well! Renee was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was 28 yrs old. When she was going to her chemo treatments, she found that creating art and painting really kept her mind positive and away from the cancer treatment. I’m very happy to say that she survived and decided to create this charity. She decided to focus it on children and adolescents that have been diagnosed with some kind of cancer. The monies that are raised through her charity events are then used to buy art supplies, package them and then send the kits out to hospitals and treatment centers, so the children can create art while going through their treatment. All at no cost to the hospital or family. She supplies many hospitals in multiple states. Wow, what an undertaking, and God bless her for taking this on! What an amazing person. I brought her in as a guest speaker at last month’s meeting, so some of you may have had the pleasure of meeting her. She’s a lovely person. Again, I can’t think of a better reason to come to the dance, support your club and support a beautiful cause!! To raise funds for her charity, she will have a silent auction and raffle. If you have something that you would like to donate for her auction / raffle please get a hold of me ASAP. I can give it to her. Let’s show her some Club Paesano love and support and let her know that we Paesano’s know how to support our community! Ticket sales are very low as of now, so if you haven’t purchased yours yet, please get them soon! Invite everyone you can, and remember, if you can’t make it to the dance, please sell or give your tickets away to someone that you feel will enjoy our events and hopefully will want to come to our next one. We can’t do this without all of our support. You’ve been cooped up in the house all winter so why not bust out and celebrate a fantastic night with your fellow members and friends while supporting such a wonderful cause! See you all there!

Club Paesano Scholarship Fundraiser:

On Sunday March 16th, Club Paesano Scholarship committee would like to invite all of you to our Pasta feed fundraiser. This will be an “All you can eat” dinner including pasta, meatballs, salad, rolls and a dessert. We will also include one adult or soft drink beverage with your dinner. We will offer a “No host” bar after that. The cost will be $25 for adults and $15 for children 12 yrs to 6. Kids under 6 yrs of age are free. Along with dinner, we will have a Raffle / Silent Auction, going on to raise money for the scholarships. All the money raised will be put into our scholarship fund. Last year we were able to award 3 scholarships at $1000 each. That was great, so we would love to match that, or even add more money to each if we raise enough. That’s where you all come in. Come and support it all. It’s a great way to support our youth and future while covering your dinner plans for that night! No cooking and doing dishes, we’ll do it all for you, while you eat, drink, have fun and support a fantastic Club Paesano cause. If you have a teen, grand-teen or relative that is a senior and is intending on extending their education to a university, college or trade school, please have them apply. The scholarship application will be on our website very soon.  Go to www.clubpaesano.org and follow the instructions. This will be their 1st test! LoL! Have them fill out everything needed, then email it back to me at [email protected] so our committee can start going through them. Let’s get together to support our future professionals, tradespeople and the kids that will be running everything very soon. We are still in great need of raffle and silent auction items, so if you can help us procure items, or if you have something that you would like to donate, please let me know. Anything will be appreciated and will help to raise money. Our doors will open at 3pm and we will go till 8pm. You can come at any time between to eat and support the raffle. We will be serving food the whole time.  You can also take it to go if you can’t stay. Our raffle / Silent auction will be drawn at the end of the night but you don’t have to be there to win as we will have you put your name and phone number on the tickets that you purchase. Let’s support our future Paesano leaders. I hope to see you all there.

Paesano Bocce News:

There is not a lot of Bocce being played as of now, but the Paesano Bocce Club Board of Directors have been very busy getting things done for this upcoming year. We have been meeting regularly, getting by-laws in place, dealing with our new 501-C3 status and getting our schedule locked down for not only our league but our tournaments as well. This year will not disappoint!!! Big money tournament, with players coming in from as far as Dallas TX and California. We have exciting times ahead. We met up with the City of Gresham to discuss our project to cover our courts. It was our initial meeting and they had a lot of information for us to take in and digest. It was a lot, and there were things that we learned. Like any project, you figure out a way to work through everything and our “Roof Committee” will do that. We are still quite away, but we know what we have to do now! Raising money is one of our primary commitments. If you would like to donate to the roof, we can give you a receipt so you can write it off on your taxes. We are always open to monetary donations! As we get closer to the construction of our new roof, such things as building materials, labor and advertisement can be written off too. If you are currently a bocce member and would like to be more involved with our board and in our decision making, we are always looking for people to run committees and have good ideas that will help us. Not only in our fundraising, but in running our league nights and tournaments. If you have any interest in doing that, please reach out to one of our board members and let them know. As always, if you are interested in joining our league nights, please see one of our board members or go on to our website at www.paesanobocce.com It doesn’t matter if you’ve played before or you’re a rookie, we have a skill set to match your play. Come with a team or by yourself as we will find you a team. It’s a fun time and a way to get to know other people and some of your fellow Club Paesano members as well. We have several CP Members that are currently playing. Come out and enjoy while learning a new sport, who knows, you just may get the “Bocce Bug”! Let the good times ROLL!

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. 

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. 

Columbus Day Dinner & Comedy Show:

 Mark your calendars for Saturday October 11th. Our Columbus Day committee has formed and have had a couple of meetings so far. They have our entertainment for the night booked. “The Uncle Louie Variety Show”. The boys are very excited to come out to the PNW. They’ve never been out here before, so let’s show up and show them how we Italians from Oregon roll! They’re a very funny duo that promises to have you laughing all night! If you haven’t seen them before, I encourage you to look them up on “Youtube” or Facebook. We will be treated to a 5-course meal served at your table, created and headed up by our very own Greg DeMaestri and his crew. If you would like to join the committee to help and add your ideas to it, please reach out to Joe Castellano (Committee Chair), Anna Fazio Nassib, Marc Battilega or Greg DeMaestri. It’ll be a fantastic night, and we’ll be bringing back our old Italian tradition along with all of the other Italian clubs in the area, the Columbus Day Dinner! Stay tuned for more information and ticket sales as it arrives.

Calendar of Events for 2025:

In our last month’s Board meeting, it was asked, “Can we put our events with dates in the Carota” So everyone can see it?” Ok Giovanni, here they are!

March 1^st ~ Carnevale Dinner/Dance

Mach 16^th ~ Scholarship Fundraising Dinner

May 17^th ~ Spring Dinner/Dance

June 4^th ~ La Polenta Dinner

August 2^nd ~ Concert in the Park

September 14^th ~ Members BBQ

October 11^th ~ Columbus Day Dinner and Show

October 25^th ~ Halloween Dinner/Dance

December 7^th ~ Christmas Dinner Party w/Santa

Thoughts & Prayers:

Last month I forgot to mention the passing of Doug Burchak’s father Jay. Jay passed away last month. He used to be the music teacher at David Douglas High. Our condolences go out to Doug and his family. Thoughts and prayers to all of our families and friends. May God keep us all healthy and strong! If you have a person that you would like me to include in the newsletter, please let me know by mid-month, so I have time to add their name. Thanks.

LaCarota Question:

Well, it looks like the Wine King has some heavy competition peeking over his shoulder. Just when Mario “The Mauler” thought that he was back in the driver’s seat of winning, along comes another. Chris “Superfly” Siri, has been creeping up the winner’s board, and is solidifying himself as a true contender. “Superfly” has been another constant in answering the question every month and it’s been proving to be successful. As I always say, “You can’t win, if you don’t play”!

If you would like to be a contender, then you need to put in the work, and answer the question. Success may come your way too! So, let’s get on with this month’s question. Seeing yesterday was Valentine’s Day; I want to focus my question around old St. V himself. As we all know, Valentine’s Day is surrounded by love, happiness and a lot of sweets! Chocolate, candy, flowers and romance top the day. With all the love and happiness surrounding the day, did you know that it wasn’t so bright in the beginning? When St. Valentine first started out, it wasn’t all love and roses. So, my question is this. Tell me why St. Valentine’s history wasn’t so great. There’s a couple of reasons, so I will accept them both. There you go. A little twist on a loving day! I bet Hallmark wouldn’t want to know about this! LoL! All correct answers will be entered to win the coveted bottle of Vino!

Final Thoughts:

Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and I hope that you were all able to enjoy it. I know that the snow may have hindered some of our plans, but hopefully you were still able to make it work. I hope that you all got to spend time with the loved ones in your lives. I know that sometimes life and everything else gets us so involved and focused that we don’t get that special time to spend with the ones we hold so near and dear to our hearts. Hopefully we can show one another love and appreciation every day and not just on February 14th. I know that most of us do, but every once and a while we need to be reminded of the little things too. Here’s to love peace and harmony to all of us, our families and friends. May love rule!  

Ti Salute, Rick.

February 2025 LaCarota

President’s Message:

Ciao a tutti, Happy New Year!! Here’s to a very prosperous 2025. As always, I hope that you all find yourselves, happy, healthy and safe! What a year it has been so far. We have a new President and administration. Things are starting to roll already. Hopefully good things will happen. Well Winter is finally here, and we are feeling the effects of old Mother Nature. The mornings have been so cold! I hope that you all got the chance to bring your favorite plants in and covered your water spigots. You definitely don’t need any bursting pipes! I complain, but I just spoke to my mother back in Canada tonight, and she says the nights have been below zero. No thank you, I’ll just keep what we have here in Oregon. Has anyone kept up with their New Year’s resolutions? Has anybody quit already? How many didn’t start one at all? Oh well, they are what they are, and the most important thing is to enjoy your life. It’s way too short as they say, so live it up and have a great time doing it!

The Big Game Watch Party:

On Sunday February 9th, we will have our annual NFL Football Championship watch party. This has always been a fan favorite and I can honestly say, it’s the best deal around! We’ll offer our traditional, “All you can eat” buffet with all of the favs. 3 HD Big screen T. V’S, so that every seat in the house is a good one and unobstructed, with a great sound system so that you can actually hear the game and the halftime show too. We’ll offer side bets, squares, and your typical watch party wagers. Of course we will offer you our “No Host” bar, with some of the cheapest prices around. We’ll even allow you to bring in your most favorite and comfortable chair if you would like. (Rubber feet or wheels only). All this for the low, low price of $15 Adults / $10 Adolescents 6yrs to 12 yrs of age/ and children 5 and under are FREE! Why make a mess at home? Bring your families and friends and we’ll do all the hard work for you. Just sit back and enjoy the game. This event is open to the public, so tell everyone that loves to watch the game, and even if they don’t, they can eat a great meal, inexpensively, and maybe win some money on a wager. Our doors will open at 12:30pm and the party will go on till the last person leaves. Tickets can be purchased at the door. (Not on our website). 

I will be at the club by 10am to set up the hall and could use some help, so if you are coming and can get there a bit earlier, I would appreciate that. Thank you, and we hope to see you all there! 

Carnevale Dance:

On Saturday March 1st, we will have our “Carnevale Dance”. This year we not only have a new Charity partner, but we will be going with a new form of entertainment too. Our charity partner is,” Creation for Cures”. They are a local charity based in Gresham. Their mission is to donate art supplies and to teach children to do art while the children are going through cancer treatment. What a cause! When I met with their CEO, Renee, she explained it all to me and she formed this charity, because she is a cancer survivor herself and art was what got her through everything. What a blessing she is for those kids. A true Angel! I will have her in as a guest speaker at our next Membership meeting. I really want you all to meet her. Along with other factors, this should be a special reason for all of you to come out and support the children! They’ll be having a raffle / Silent auction to raise funds for their cause! Let everyone know. Share it on your social media, pass out fliers and talk to everyone you know. Let’s make this a very special event for not only us but “Creations for Cures”! The other different thing that we will be trying at this dance, will be our entertainment. We will be trying out a DJ Service. This company works in the entertainment field and are veterans at what they do! They can play it all, which will be a change for us. They will be taking requests, and we’ve already told them that we would like to hear some Italian music as well. They said, “No problem”. This will give some of our senior members a chance to get up and enjoy the entertainment. Perhaps dancing to a waltz, polka, or even the “Chicken Dance”. An all-time classic! LoL! Sinatra, Martin, Como, anything you want them to play, they will do their best. In fact, if you have any special requests, perhaps a hard-to-find melody, please let me know, so I can relay the info to them before the dance. They asked us to tell them in advance, so they could find what we are asking for.

This will be a great dance with a terrific cause. Tickets are now available on our website. Please go to www.clubpaesano.org to purchase your favorite table before they are all gone. Hope to see you all there.

Club Paesano Scholarship Fund:

On Sunday March 16th, we will be having our Inaugural Club Paesano Scholarship Fundraising Dinner.

Last year we combined it with our Heritage Dinner. This year, it will be on its own. A special day to come together. Socialize, eat, drink and support this wonderful cause. Our very own CP Scholarship! It’s a great feeling to know that we are supporting our youth and their academic futures and dreams! As we know, going to university, college, or a trade school is difficult enough, but gathering the funds to do it can be even harder for our kiddo’s. Having the financials to pay for it all, obviously is a must. This will be a great opportunity for you to come out and support our future. Future Doctors, lawyers, accountants, electricians, musicians, etc. They will all need our help! We are still in GREAT NEED, of items that we can add to our Silent auction / raffle. Anything that you can donate will be helpful and appreciated. Vacation homes, experiences, such as a trip, skiing, boating, Sporting team, game tickets. (Blazers, Timbers, Thornes, Mariners, etc.). Tools, and work equipment. Sporting goods. Automotive supplies. Food items like olive oil, vinegar, pasta, sauces, charcuterie. We’ll need baskets or items to place in the baskets. Gift cards, wine bottles or liquor bottles. Etc, etc. I know that a lot of you have been to fund raisers and know the routine. We are counting on having a good turnout and we would like to have many items to bid on. This will be a pasta feed with salad and rolls. You can eat in with all of us and we’ll also be offering “Take out” as well. So, you can bring the pasta goodness home to feed the family or eat the next day. Our doors will open at 3pm and we will go till 7pm, so you can come any time before 7pm. We will be serving food till then. We will also be writing your name on the raffle tickets and taking phone numbers for our silent auction, so if you can’t stay till the end and you win something, we will call you and get it to you. The cost is $25 per adult and children from 6yrs to 12 yrs will be $15. Kids 5 yrs and under will be free. Tickets will be available at the door only. Please come to support this worthy cause and if you can, please help us to procure raffle and auction items. Of course, we will always take cash donations too! The Scholarship application will be on our website very soon. I will let you all know as soon as it goes live. Just like last year, our scholarship committee will review all of the candidates and choose the best 3 to give our scholarships to.

The scholarships will be presented to our chosen students, at our Polenta Dinner on Wednesday, June 4th. Please support our future!

Thoughts & Prayers:

This month’s thoughts and prayers go out to my father’s 1st cousin from Michigan. Her name was Juliet Bastianelli. She unfortunately passed away a few days ago at 93 yrs old. She was always a “Zia” to me and my sisters. My dad and her grew up right next door to each other in Italy and both immigrated to North America at the same time. Her family went to Detroit Michigan, and my dad went to Windsor, Ontario Canada, just across the river. Our families were always so close and we did so much together. All of the terrific memories that I have. She will be truly missed, but she will be in heaven with her husband, Romeo, once again. Yes, it was truly “Romeo & Juliet”. Thoughts & prayers go out to all of us CP members and all of our families both near and far. Also, prayers to our club member Doug Burchak who lost his day two weeks ago! May God bless us all and keep us protected. May God also protect and guide our new President and his administration. If you would like me to add anyone to this segment, please reach out to me and let me know before the end of the month and I will add them.

Activating Paesano’s:

I’m writing this segment to do just as the title says, “Activate Paesano’s”. What is this about you ask? Well, let me tell you. As you all know, Club Paesano is an Italian / American social club and a non- profit as well. All of the work that has been done in this club, whether it’s physical work, volunteering or to do things with our club, such as being on a committee, doing clerical or promoting events, cooking, helping behind the bar, coming up with ideas, etc. it’s all done by our members. Without all of our members’ help both in the past, present and future our club would have probably dissolved years ago. Most everything is done by our membership volunteers!

That being said, I would like to reach out to all of you, whether you’ve been here 70yrs or you just started. We are all Paesano’s. We have some of our members that have been carrying the brunt of the load for a long time. We know who those members are and I thank each and every one of you. I also know and understand that some of our older members cannot do what they used to in the past, and you know what, they deserve a pass and to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I’ve heard many stories of all the hard work that it took to get this club off the ground and to get it to where it is now. To all of our active members, I ask you to look at what you can do for the benefit of our club. If you have a special talent, or you are a certified tradesman. Maybe you are great on the computer, and you know the ins and outs of social media. Perhaps you would like to sit on a committee like we made for our scholarship. We are always in need of a “Dance” Committee. People that can come together to put a dance on. Hire the band, get a charity and advertise. We need different ideas for our events. Let’s change them up a bit. We can try a “Country Western” themed dance. We are all open for a change and I am open to new ideas! We need help folks! I became President for another year, to help with a transition, and to motivate and activate our members, to take over some day. As I’ve said a million and one times, we love what we are doing, but some help and the sense of togetherness would help a lot too. I said it at our last meeting, don’t be surprised if I tap you on the shoulder and ask you if you can be on a committee or to run a certain project. Honestly, I’d much rather have you come to me and let me know. There is plenty to do and. I don’t want the people we have to get “Burned out” either. I’ve spoken to a lot of you and a lot of you have some great ideas. I’d love nothing better than to have you see it through, whether with some help or without. Please don’t come to me or the board with an idea or something that you’d like to see done, then just walk away from it, for us to do. Trust me, my board and myself have plenty on our plates, but with your help or your willingness to take the lead or “Champion” something would be terrific. Maybe writing is your strength. Let’s get some of you involved with this newsletter. Maybe you would like to add a segment for us to read. It doesn’t have to be long; a couple of paragraphs would do. Maybe you would like to come up with the “LaCarota” question. Deb Guthrie has done a fantastic job in adding some great tidbits to the newsletter. Information and facts about Italy and our Italian culture. That’s perfect! You could add your favorite recipe, what’s going on throughout PDX and the Italian communities. Some of you are more connected to that, and the information would be great for us Paesanos to know. After 49 issues of the “LaCarota” and 10 more to go, the well is starting to run dry! LoL! I can still come up with information, but some fresh takes would be nice too. So please, don’t be shy, come and talk to me so I can get you on board with whatever you can offer your club. Thank you!

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. 

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. 

Columbus Day Dinner & Comedy Show:

I’m happy to say that after a long layoff, our Columbus Day Dinner will be coming back this year, and will be hosted by Club Paesano. We will be inviting all of the other Italian clubs and Italians as in the past, plus it will also be open to the public. The date will be Saturday October 11th, so please mark it on your calendar. This will be a formal affair including a 4 course “Sit down” dinner followed by a comedy show by “The Uncle Louie Variety Show”. These guys are from New Jersey and have toured all over the USA and Canada. They will have you in stitches for sure. If you haven’t seen them yet, Google them, they’ll crack you up!

This event is being chaired by Joe Castellano and Anna Nassib. They are starting to form a committee so if you would like to be a part of it and give them a hand, please get a hold of them and let them know that you’d like to help. More information will be given in the upcoming months.

LaCarota Question:

Well now. Just when we thought that he was down and out, not able to win another bottle of our coveted Vino, “The Comeback Kid” from Rhode Island proved us wrong. Mario “The Mauler” Pompei took another swing and came down with the Holy Grail, and even the bottle of his liking! The man is back to his winning ways. Will 2025 be his year? Can he sweep the whole year? (A far cry, but he can only hope!) Will there be another veteran like Jim Burch, making a run or will it be one of our newbies getting their name in print and becoming famous. We will see! With our upcoming Columbus dinner and comedy show, my question is this. Please give me the names of your favorite Italian comedians and why they are your favorites. That’s it, pretty simple!

All answers will be entered to win this month’s prize. Good Luck!

Paesano Bocce News:

There’s not much to report as far as bocce play goes, but as most of you know, Paesano Bocce Club is now an official 501-C3. This means that any donations that we receive can be written off on your taxes. We are always open to monetary donations. As we get closer to the construction of our new roof, such things as building materials, labor and advertisement can be written off too. We will be happy to give you a receipt to give to your tax person. As always, if you are interested in joining our league nights, please see one of our board members or go on to our website at www.paesanobocce.com It doesn’t matter if you’ve played before or you’re a rookie, we have a skill set to match your play. Come with a team or by yourself as we will find you a team. It’s a fun time and a way to get to know other people and some of your fellow Club Paesano members as well. We have several CP Members that are currently playing. Come out and enjoy while learning a new sport, who knows, you just may get the “Bocce Bug”!

Final Thoughts:

Well, I think that I just about covered all of my thoughts in the rest of this newsletter. Let us try to see the good in new ideas and changes and not just the bad. Seeing eye to eye and agreeing to agree, or disagree is always good too. The more this world gets along, the easier things will be! Also, as I said earlier, please step up when you can to help out our club and your fellow members. I know that there are a lot of you out there with some great talents and skills that our club could desperately use. Please help out and do your part when you can. Here is to our club, its members, past, present and future and to another 70 great years to come. Let’s make 2025 a year of celebrations for all of us. Eccoci a 100 anni. Ti Saluto.

Rick

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

December 2024                             LaCarota

President’s Message:

Ciao a tutti. How are you all doing? As always, I hope that this edition of our newsletter finds you all, Happy, Healthy and Safe! Happy Holiday season to you all. I know, I can’t believe that we are already here either. Again, where has the time gone? I hope that you are all getting ready for the massive food intake! Let’s face it, we’re Italian, and it can’t be an Italian party without enough food to feed a small village. Food has always been a huge part of all of our holidays, birthdays, Christenings, communions, weddings. It’s just who we are and a part of our “Well Being”! Trust me, I’m not complaining, not at all! I love waking up and smelling those magnificent aromas of wonderfully constructed Italian dishes created by the best engineers of all, our Mamma’s! I don’t know how they did it. Our Moms prepped the day before, woke up early the day of, and “BAM”, the creations started. The masterpieces started taking shape, and before you knew it, you were sitting down to a magnificent 7 course dinner! A $200 meal without a doubt. Just writing about this, is taking me back to my mom’s cooking. I’m starting to smell the aroma and unconsciously tasting what I grew so accustomed to and unfortunately sometimes took for granted. I know that we’ve all tried to carry on our parents’ traditions, and hopefully have all come somewhat close. Here’s to all of the ladies, and men in our lives that did their best to keep us full but most important of all kept our family traditions alive. It wasn’t all about the food, but having the family together in one place and enjoying being with one another. Let’s all try to keep our family traditions alive and well. Here’s to all of our families and the holidays that get us all together! Cheers!

Italia Artisan Festival:

On Saturday November 23rd and Sunday, the 24th, we offered our very 1st and hopefully Annual Holiday Bazaar. The “Italia Artisan Festival”. This was our very 1st time having this type of event. As you all know, change is good, and I’m always in search of anything that we can add to our club to make it better! With the help of our newly sponsored members, Michael Merrill and his sister Bridgett Merrill-Haines (Children of long-time member Jim Merrill) this event was a huge success! It was not only great for Club Paesano, but it also shed a lot of light on Cedarville Lodge & Park. I heard so many great things about our facilities and how gracious our club is. The guests that joined us were amazed at what a fantastic place we have. Like I always say, this is a place that we all need to be so proud of. They couldn’t say enough great things. Hopefully not only will this help us with our future events and getting new guests through the doors, but also helps Cedarville with many rentals to come. Thank you once again to “Gather Arts”, Michael Merrill, Bridgett Merrill- Haines, for getting this event off the ground. You took a vision and made it happen! I appreciate you both so much! I’d also like to thank all of our members that took part in making this, our 1st annual event a success. Greg Demister, Jimmy Calcagno, Mario Pompei, Chris Siri, Geno & John Benagni, Kelly Barasch, Doug Burchak, Jimmy Burch, Dino Gavazzi and all that helped out. These events and new ideas can only come together if we take the ideas and visions and all work together to make it happen! A huge Thank you to all and here is to more ideas blossoming in our future!

Club Paesano Christmas Party:

On Sunday December 8th, we will be hosting our annual Christmas Dinner and visit from none other than Good Ol Saint Nick. This is another favorite and opportunity for all of our members to get together and enjoy a Club Paesano Christmas. It’s always been one of my favorites. It’s one of the benefits of being a member of this wonderful club. It’s another chance to celebrate the holidays together with all of our families in the confines of our beautiful Cedarville Lodge. This is a catered party with some delicious food. We’ve had the same caterer for the last 4 years and they have been great! They really do a wonderful job and make us a memorable and fantastic meal. As always, wine, beer and soft drinks will be provided at no cost to our members. If you have a favorite bottle of wine that you’d like to bring, feel free to do so. Our meal will be followed by CP Christmas carols, including the always fun, “12 Days of Christmas” and the fan favorite, “Dominic the Christmas Donkey”. Following the Christmas cheer, will be our annual installment of our CP Board members and Officers including our CP Member of the year. All of this wouldn’t be complete without our annual visit by Santa Claus. That’s only if we’ve all been good lil Paesano’s though. I guess I’ll check in with the North Pole that day to see if we even have a chance. I’m sure that all of our little ones will give us a great chance of seeing Saint Nick show up with some gifts for them. In case you don’t know or are fairly new, this event is free to all members in good standing including your spouse or partner and any child that is 21 years of age or younger still living in your residence. You can also invite a close family member or child that may not live under your roof for a fee. For extra adults, the cost is $28. For young adults 5 to 12 yrs, $18, and is free for children under the age of 4. Also, if you have not yet paid your membership dues or any other outstanding fees that you owe, you will need to take care of this before or on that day, or you will not be able to partake in this fantastic event. If you owe, then please pay up. Don’t miss out because of it! This is a great event that brings us all together. Expect a call from Marc Battilega to confirm the number of attendees for dinner and for a headcount of our little ones so that Santa can come prepared. Let’s bring in the holidays with a good old fashion Italian family dinner! Doors will open at 3pm with our dinner to follow. Buon Appetito!

Club Paesano Scholarship:

Our 1st annual CP Scholarship was such a success and I am so proud of what our newly formed committee did to make it happen. I’m so happy to be involved with them. I really believe that it’s one of Club Paesano’s “Shining Moments”. It really shows that we are involved in our children’s education and that their Italian heritage is so important and something that we truly need to help carry forward. This is something that I’ve always had a passion for and I hope that it will be carried on for years and years to come! Let’s all do everything we can to keep the education of our youth and future leaders, professionals and workers alive and well. Although our Dinner and fundraiser will take place sometime early next year, there is no time like the present to start procuring donations and gifts for our raffle and silent auction. As of now, this is our main resource to raise money for our scholarships. If you all can go out and secure items, we will have plenty of things to make the money necessary to give to these scholarships. Earlier this year, we were able to give away 3 scholarships of $1000 each. If we can raise more money, maybe we can add more to each scholarship or maybe even offer another one. This will all depend on the funding that we will be able to raise. Anything will be appreciated. If you have something that you can donate or if you would like to be involved in our Scholarship committee, please contact me. That said, Club Paesano is starting their “Fundraising Drive” for our Scholarship program. The Club Paesano Scholarship Committee will have a Donation box set out at our CP Christmas Dinner, so that our members can drop off cash, check or credit cards to make a donation to the cause. Thank you and here’s to our Italian Youth!

Installation of CP Board and New Members:
Election of new Club Paesano Board & Members:

As you all know, the end of the year brings the election and installation of our new board members and officers. This time also gives us a chance to vote on our newest group of terrific people that would love to become Club Paesano Members. People that have expressed and shown interest in wanting to not only become members of our fine club, but also want to be involved in our growth and our future. It’s a great thing that we keep expanding our membership. People want to become members and are excited about it. This just goes to show that we are doing something right. What a great compliment to all of us and this great club that we belong to. In November’s meeting we got to meet and hear our newest prospects. We have a good number of new applicants, which just shows that our club is a place that people want to be a part of. We also had many members nominated for our open Board positions and our “Member of the Year”. So here are you nominees and new members applicants. I’d also like to thank our current board of director members that are leaving the board. I thank you with all my heart and appreciate everything that all of you have done for our club!

Board of members that will be leaving their positions:

Geno Benagni

Carlos Barajas

Dominic Giusto

*Returning Officers & Board Members:

John Kern

Marc Battilega

Mario Pompei

Chris Siri

Phil Potestio

*Officers and Board of Directors Nominees:

President; Rick Cervi

Vice President; John Benagni

Sergeant at arms; Greg Demiestri

Board of Directors; Bennedetto Mietitiro, Vince Curletto, Debra Calcagno Guthrie, Domenic Giusto

*New Member applicants / Sponsor

Ambrose (Ace) Calcagno – Debbra Calcagno Guthrie

Lori Colbert – Steve Leonetti

Steve Castellano- Joe & Stefano Castellano

Lynn Piraino – Mario Pompei

Mario Mastrangelo – Daniela Sardo

Bridgett Merrill-Haines – Rick Cervi

Michael Merrill – Jim Merrill

Vince Moore – Greg Demister

*Member of the Year:

Jim Burch

John Benagni

Doug Burchak

Mario Pompei

Kelly Barasch

Debra Calcagno Guthrie

Rick Cervi

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. 

Paesano Bocce Club:

Paesano Bocce Club:

Well even though all of our Paesano Bocce leagues and tournaments have come to an end, some of our members were involved and signed up for out-of-town tournaments. The 1st being in Reno Nevada at the Peppermill Casino and the 2nd being in Grand Prairie Texas, right near Dallas at the Lone Star Racing Park. The Reno Tourney had 4 Paesano bocce teams represented, and the Texas tourney had 2 teams from our club represented. I am happy to say that one of our teams that went to Reno came in 3rd out of 60 teams. Way to represent and play hard. The Paesano members representing the team, “Palino or Bust”, consisting of, Captain, Brad Cotton, Joachim Cretion, and Betty Hanson, kept their heads down and went to work! They overcame a couple of losses to win enough games to take 3rd overall! The field was 60 deep, so this was a very tough feat with some great competition. Our 2 teams that went to Texas, didn’t fare as good, but had a great time and represented our club well. To all of our club members that went to these out-of-town tournaments, we say thank you and are thankful that you represented Paesano Bocce. For all of our members that are actively playing and that haven’t played in any of our out-of-town tournaments, I strongly encourage you to try it. It’s great fun and a good way to network and meet fellow bocce players from other cities and states. I have gone to quite a few now, and it’s been so positive. Not only do you get to watch and play some good bocce, but you also get to meet some bocce players from different states and hopefully some future friends. It’s been a great experience, and I recommend it to all of our bocce members. For any of our Club Paesano members that don’t currently play but are interested or are in need of information, please feel free to go to our website at www.paesanobocce.com or contact one of our board members. Anyone of us would be happy to help you and answer any questions that you may have. Also, if you have any extra money that you need to donate before the end of the year, Paesano Bocce is the place to donate it to. As you know, we have become a Non-Profit 501-C3, so any of your donations can now be a tax deduction on your taxes. We are raising funds so that we can build a roof over our bocce courts. This will put the Paesano Bocce Club on the nation’s bocce map! It would definitely bring players from all over the nation to play here in Oregon. I personally spoke to quite a few people at the Texas tournament that have never been up to the Pacific Northwest, but all commented on how they would love to visit our area. “If you build it, they will come!” Please help to get this roof built. It will be a great addition to our grounds and will benefit all of us tremendously! Any monetary donation will be appreciated! Here is to rolling into our next year and to another successful year!

Thoughts and Prayers:

I’d like to give a great big Club Paesano Congratulations to our member Greg Demister and his lovely new wife Lori Bass. They were newlywed at our beautiful Cedarville Lodge on Wednesday November 27th. Truly a great time to give THANKS! Here’s to the newlywed couple. Wishing them all the best in the newest chapter of their lives. All love, peace and prosperity to a fantastic couple and two people that I have the privilege of calling friends!

 LaCarota Question:

Well now, just when I thought that we had one contender, Jimmy “Bam Bam’ Burch fighting his way to the top of the Vino Champions Summit, there has been another member that has been sneaking his way into the contender’s circle. This member has been pretty “Stealth like” in his rise to the upper echelon, but I have to admit, I like it!! Congratulations go out to none other than “Pistol” Pete Rebagliati, for winning this month’s big prize of two bottles of wine. Yes, that’s right, it was two bottles that I gave away! Pete won back in August, and has been another constant in answering my questions. I really appreciate the answers that are sent in. It really makes me think that you all are reading the newsletter, LoL! Will we have another up and comer challenge for next month’s coveted bottle of vino. It will be the last one of the year, that is!

So, for this month’s question, I will stick to the holiday theme. There is a certain “Sweet” that is given out in Italy at Christmas. It was a treat that I always looked forward to when my Nonna from Italy would send a gift pack to us from the old country. It was always at Christmas time for our family. My question is, name this certain “Sweet” that I am referring to. I will give you all 2 hints to make it a little bit easier. As we know, Italy is full of so many delicious sweets! The Christmas treat that I’m thinking of is in rectangular form, (long like a candy bar) and usually has nuggets or pistachios in it. Ok, before I tell you what it is, I will stop. What is the name of this delicious treat that I speak of? That is, it. Answer this question correctly, and you will be written in the history books as the last Vino Winner of the year 2024! As I always like to say, “You can’t win if you don’t play”, so get your winning answers into me before next month’s meeting. All correct answers will be entered in our drawing. Good Luck!

Final Thoughts:

My final thoughts this month are about the upcoming holidays, our CP elections, new members and our Club in general. First off, I want to wish everyone the best of the holiday to come. I hope that you all find yourselves amongst your families, and that you are all able to spend some special time with them. I hope that you all find peace, love and happiness with all of them. May you also have a full belly with all of the fantastic food that we are all about to have! Don’t worry about it, your New Year’s resolution is around the corner, so eat and be Merry! Once again, this is the time of year for Club Paesano that brings in our newest members, and our newly elected Board of Directors. When you make your selections and cast your votes for each, please keep your club in mind. Ask questions and get to know the candidates that you are voting for. The main thing that we all want is to have members and new candidates for membership, who want to do the best for our club and its membership. We want people that will work hard, and promote the best of Club Paesano. We want our members to advertise, be active, bring new ideas and new energy. Just think about your club, its members and its future! With all that being said, I just want to see the best for our club and its growth. A lot of us that are constantly involved have our CP Famiglia here and want to see it expand and continue to grow in a positive way. I want to wish you and yours the best of the holidays to come, and I will deliver you one more newsletter before the end of the year. Here’s to a great Thanksgiving. Let’s remember to give “Thanks” for all that we have and our loved ones that are with us. Let’s remember those who are less fortunate and “Give” to those who don’t have the essentials of everyday living. Let’s give Thanks! Thanks to our families and thanks for a great life! 

Ti Salute!

Rick

November 2024                              LaCarota

President’s Message:

Ciao! Come state tutti? Come sempre, spero che questa newsletter vi trovi tutti sani, felici e salvi. Ecco a cento anni e benedizioni dall’Italia! Sorry, I’m still in my Italian mode. Getting to speak it as much as I can when I’m there is such a blessing. I barely get to speak it when I’m here unfortunately, so it has been awesome getting to practice it and conversing. Surprisingly enough, everyone understood me, and I made my way through for a month! It was FANTASTIC! There are not enough words to describe how much I love Italy! Our “Mother Country”, the place where it all began for so many of us. Our parents and ancestors’ beginnings that were passed on to us! As I said in my last newsletter, being in Italy and getting to see its beauty, its ingenuity, architecture, art, landscape, is such a wonderful thing! Add its delicious foods, sensational wines and desserts especially Gelato! My goodness, how can you ask for anything else? I’m not into sweets but I could literally eat fresh gelato every day. I had to leave before I became too heavy for the plane ride back! LoL! For any of you that have never been or if it’s been a while since being there, my recommendation is to go. All kidding aside, if you have the ability to get there, please do, you won’t regret it! I hope that you have all been doing well and getting ready for the new season to set in. At least we’ll all get a little calm before the winter months hit. I’m really not looking forward to it, but it could be worse. Before you know it, we’ll be bringing in 2025 and hopefully for all, we’ll be looking back at what was a great year!

Halloween Dance:

On Saturday October 19th we had our annual Halloween Dance. We got to party with the “Pink Sista’s” and dance the night away with “Crescendo Skye”, our musical entertainment. What a night and what a success! We were a handful of people away from a “Sellout”! Our attendance was just shy of 300. That was a great showing. Thank you to all of our members that could attend. I hope that you all enjoyed it. For those of you that couldn’t, hopefully you can make the next one. Our Halloween dance is always a fan favorite and brings out some fantastic and original costumes. It was a 70’s themed party and we even included a costume contest. It was a lot of fun. Our charity partner, the “Pink Sista’s” , had a raffle and silent auction which raised a good amount of money for their cause. Deb Hart loves teaming up with us because we’re fun and know how to throw a party, but most importantly, she is able to raise the kind of money that it takes to take her Survivors on retreats and give them the support that they need. She is so thankful and loves that we are able to help with her mission! As always, I’d like to thank Marc Battilega and family for cooking and keeping everyone well fed. Thank you to Dino Gavazza, Lisa Kern, Doug Burchak and any other member that helped the kitchen crew out. Thank you to John Kern and Jimmy Calcagno for working the door. Mario Pompei and Chris Siri for running the wine bar. John and Geno Benagni for fixing the POS system, and of course all of you that came to help set up and tear down. None of this could be done without all of your help. We had a great set up crew in the morning, and I thank you all. That is the kind of support we need for every event and function. We are a family, and everyone needs to do their part to make this a well oiled machine run. Every little bit helps. Let’s keep this momentum going and try to make each upcoming event as successful as possible. Thank you!

Italia Artisan Fair:

On the weekend of November 23rd & 24th. Club Paesano along with “Gather Arts” will be putting on our 1st and hopefully annual “Holiday Bazaar”, Italiano style! The “Italia Artisan Fair”. This is an idea that’s been in the works for a couple of years and has finally come to fruition! I’ve been working with Bridget, Micheal and Sam Merril,  (Daughter, Son and Grandson of long time member, Jim Merrill) from “Gather Arts” to put this event together and to make it a reality. “Gather Arts” offers several different classes at their family farm in Brush Prairie WA. You can go there as a group or individual and learn “DIY” crafts that they offer up. They are a very talented group. You can go to their website at www.gatherarts.com and check out all that they do. This is a Club Paesano event, and we will run a few different things to raise money for our club, so we will need members to volunteer for certain jobs. Kitchen help, bartenders and bar backs, main door, parking cars and security. Kelly Barasch will be our “Volunteer Coordinator” and will be reaching out to our membership to fill these positions. It is a 2 day event, so I’m hoping to have enough members volunteer so that we can all come out and enjoy this event with our family and friends. This event will resemble an indoor “Farmers Market” with vendors, craft classes, food, drink and music. You will probably be able to get some of your Christmas shopping done as well as taking a class or 2 and maybe be able to make a gift for that special loved one. We will have the pleasure of listening to the music of one of our own, Ace Calcagno. He is the son of Chris Calcagno, who unfortunately left us way too early. Ace has studied music and is a professional musician, with several CD’s to his credit. If you are a member who does crafts, and would like the opportunity to sell your creations at this event, we will offer all members a discount on a table rental for the 2 days. Just contact myself or Bridget Merrill to get a spot reserved. This event is being held at the start of the holidays and will be a great opportunity for you to make a little bit of Christmas cash! If you are musically inclined or know of someone that is, we could use a few more talented people to keep our guests entertained. Again, let Bridget or myself know. You can contact me via email or phone. Email, [email protected] or ph# 503-891-7374. You can also contact Bridget Merrill at www.gatherarts.com or ph# 971-269-6316. This is our 1st event of this kind, so if you have any ideas or input that you think would be helpful to make this event even better, please feel free to contact me and let me know your thoughts. All ideas are welcomed. This event is open to the public and to all ages so make sure to bring and invite all of your families and friends. Please help to spread the word and help to fill this event up. The times are Saturday November 23rd, 10am – 7pm and Sunday November 24th, 10am – 5pm. We may even have a 2 day appearance from none other than “Dominic the Christmas Donkey”. Now how can you miss the opportunity to have your children’s and your pictures taken with this celebrity. If you have any input, suggestions or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I can’t think of a better way of bringing in the holiday’s, Paesano Style! We’ll see you there!

Club Paesano Christmas Party:

On Sunday December 8th, we will be hosting our annual Christmas Dinner and visit from none other than Good Ol Saint Nick. This is another favorite and opportunity for all of our members to get together and enjoy a Club Paesano Christmas. It’s always been one of my favorites. It’s one of the benefits of being a member of this wonderful club. It’s another chance to celebrate the holidays together with all of our families in the confines of our beautiful Cedarville Lodge. This is a catered party with some delicious food. We’ve had the same caterer for the last 4 years and they have been great! They really do a wonderful job and make us a memorable and fantastic meal. As always, wine, beer and soft drinks will be provided at no cost to our members. If you have a favorite bottle of wine that you’d like to bring, feel free to do so. Our meal will be followed by CP Christmas carols, including the always fun, “12 Days of Christmas” and the fan favorite, “Dominic the Christmas Donkey”. Following the Christmas cheer, will be our annual installment of our CP Board members and Officers including our CP Member of the year. All of this wouldn’t be complete without our annual visit by Santa Claus. That’s only if we’ve all been good lil Paesano’s though. I guess I’ll check in with the North Pole that day to see if we even have a chance. I’m sure that all of our little ones will give us a great chance of seeing Saint Nick show up with some gifts for them. In case you don’t know or are fairly new, this event is free to all members in good standing including your spouse or partner and any child that is 21 years of age or younger still living in your residence. You can also invite a close family member or child that may not live under your roof for a fee. For extra adults, the cost is $28. For young adults 5 to 12 yrs, $18, and is free for children under the age of 4. Also, if you have not yet paid your membership dues or any other outstanding fees that you owe, you will need to take care of this before or on that day, or you will not be able to partake in this fantastic event. If you owe, then please pay up. Don’t miss out because of it! This is a great event that brings us all together. Expect a call from Marc Battilega to confirm the number of attendees for dinner and for a headcount of our little ones so that Santa can come prepared. Let’s bring in the holidays with a good old fashion Italian family dinner! Doors will open at 3pm with our dinner to follow. Buon Appetito!

Club Paesano Scholarship:

Our 1st annual CP Scholarship was such a success and I am so proud of what our newly formed committee did to make it happen. I’m so happy to be involved with them. I really believe that it’s one of Club Paesano’s “Shining Moments”. It really shows that we are involved in our children’s education and that their Italian heritage is so important and something that we truly need to help carry forward. This is something that I’ve always had a passion for and I hope that it will be carried on for years and years to come! Let’s all do everything we can to keep the education of our youth and future leaders, professionals and workers alive and well. Although our Dinner and fundraiser will take place sometime early next year, there is no time like the present to start procuring donations and gifts for our raffle and silent auction. As of now, this is our main resource to raise money for our scholarships. If you all can go out and secure items, we will have plenty of things to make the money necessary to give to these scholarships. Earlier this year, we were able to give away 3 scholarships of $1000 each. If we can raise more money, maybe we can add more to each scholarship or maybe even offer another one. This will all depend on the funding that we will be able to raise. Anything will be appreciated. If you have something that you can donate or if you would like to be involved in our Scholarship committee, please contact me. Thank you and here’s to our Italian Youth!

Installation of CP Board and New Members:

As you know, the end of the year brings on the installation of newly elected CP board members and the introduction of our newest members. We’ll also introduce a new “Member of the Year”. We have a group of new people that have expressed the desire of becoming new CP members. I have spoken to them and their sponsors and have explained to them what is expected of them to join our prestigious club. Not only do we want them to be a good fit for us, but we also want to be a great fit for them too. We would like people that will be involved and want to be part of our family. A person that will not only be active but will be proud to be a Paesano and want to make sure that this club continues from generation to generation. We will also be looking to fill some vacancies coming to the board of directors. If you feel that you would like to become a board member and have what it takes to represent not only your membership but the club as a whole, or feel that you can nominate someone with these characteristics, please feel free to self nominate or to nominate that individual. This club has made some leaps and strides and we would love to keep that momentum going. It takes hard work and dedication. It’s not always easy, but the reward is always so fulfilling. Knowing that you helped in keeping our club and your fellow members active and moving forward is fantastic! We are looking for members that can spend the time and be dedicated to the cause. Let’s expand and bring in new ideas, personalities and points of view! I for one have enjoyed my 4 years as your President and the 3 years that I spent as a board member. It really gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment. As I said, it’s not always easy, but the reward really makes up for any of that! I love it and love this club. If you feel the same, step up and take on a position! This year brings on a lot of openings.Nominations of Board members and new member introductions will take place at our November’s Meeting. Voting will take place at our December’s meeting. 

Your board of Directors: (Years remaining)

President: Yours truly; Rick Cervi- End of Term

Vice President; Jim Calcagno- End of term

Sergeant of Arms; John Benagni- End of Term

Treasurer; John Kern- Indefinite

Secretary; Marc Battilega- 1year remains

Board Member; Geno Benagni- End of Term

Board Member; Carlos Barajas- End of Term

Board Member; Dominic Guisto- End of Term

Board Member; Mario Pompei- 1 year remains

Board Member; Chris Siri- 1 year remains

Board Members; Phil Potestio- 1 year remains

New Members Nominated; (Sponsor)

Vince Moore- Greg DeMiestri

Lynn Piriano- Rick Cervi / Mario Pompei

Mario Mastriano- Daniela Sardo

Lori Colbert- Steve Leonetti

John Siri- Jim Siri

Ace Calcagno – Debbie Calcagno Guthrie

Steve Castellano – Joe Castellano

Bridget Merrill-Haines ~ Rick Cervi

Michael Merrill ~ Jim Merrill

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. 

Paesano Bocce Club:

Our Bocce “Fall League” is still going on. Fortunately, Mother Nature has been on our side and has given us the opportunity to be able to play for the last 8 Sundays. Wow, that’s more games than we played in our Summer League. It’s been great to see all of the new and regular players coming out every Sunday morning to play and have a fun time. There’s been some fantastic games being played and it’s been a perfect opportunity for our newer players to learn from our seasoned vets. Hopefully we will be able to get a few more weeks in before the temperatures drop and the water spigot gets turned on. We have a couple of tournaments coming up out of town and am happy to say that we have at least 5 teams from our bocce club going to them to represent us. We 1st have a tourney in Dallas, Texas. The “Lone Star Invitational”, which will have 2 teams representing and a week later in Reno Nevada. The “Peppermill Open” which will host 3 more of our teams. It’s great to see that our players are starting to branch out and playing outside of just our facilities and Paesano sponsored events. It’s the only way that we will start getting noticed and recognized for our talented bunch of members. If you’d like to get involved with our bocce league and would like to play in our league, please reach out to one of our board members or go to our website at www.paesanobocceclub.com for more information or to sign up. As you know, we are still raising funding to put a roof over our four “World Class” courts. We are now a 501-C3 Non-Profit, and any donation we get is now a tax write off for you. It’s coming to the end of the year and if you happen to be in that position where you need to divert some of your earnings to avoid giving it all to Uncle Sam, then we have just the place and cause for you to donate it to. Please contact myself or Mario Pompei for more information. Of course we will take any monetary, material or volunteer donation as well.

Let’s “RAISE THE ROOF”, and put the Paesano Bocce Club on the national scene!

The Fun Committee:

Our Monday Night Socials are still alive and well. Please feel free to stop in on a Monday night to eat, drink and have a FUN time with your fellow CP Members. We are planning on another Christmas outing so please stay tuned for upcoming news about it.

Thoughts and Prayers:

Our Thoughts and Prayers go out to all of our CP Members, their families and friends. May the good Lord bless us all and keep us all safe, protected and blessed. May God keep this club and our members active and in good graces. Let’s keep moving forward and know how fortunate we are to have one another. If you know of a member or someone that is in need of an extra prayer and some help, please let me know and I can add them to our newsletter.

Doug Burchak’s brother Mike had a heart attach and scheduled for triple bypass surgery.

La Carota Question:

Well, well, once again it was Jimmy “Bam Bam” Burch who clawed and climbed his way back into the winner’s circle! I tell you what, I am so impressed by Jimmy’s tenacity and consistency in answering my monthly questions. I can always count on seeing an answer from ol “Bam Bam” himself. Once again proving that if you don’t play, you can’t win. I really think that he’s trying to make a run at the Heavyweight Champ, Mario “The Mauler” POM,,,PEI. Way to go Jimmy and the rest of you that consistently answer the questions. You make it fun! So on to this month’s question. Seeing that we are in the Halloween mood, just wrapping up our own party last week, my question will be about our very 1st Club Paesano Halloween Party. My question is 3 parts. 1st; What was the date of our very 1st Halloween Party? 2nd; Where was it held at? 3rd; Who was the musical entertainment? If you can answer at least 2 out of the 3 parts of the question, you will be entered to win not only one, but two bottles of wine. Yes you heard me right, 2 bottles of wine!!! Just in time for your Thanksgiving Day meal. All correct answers will be entered to win our coveted BOTTLES of vino! Be like Jimmy Burch and Mario Pompei, “Just do it!”

Final Thoughts:

As I stated earlier in our newsletter, the time has come once again to nominate and elect our new Board of Directors. Some people may return, and some that get elected may have been there before. The most important thing is that we nominate and elect a board and bring in new members that will always hold our club and its membership in high regard. I’m hoping that we put people in positions that deserve it and who aspire to do good things for our club and its members. I feel that the administrations that I have been involved with and those that were there before me always had those intentions and put this club 1st. That being said, if you feel that you are that person and feel that you can keep a positive momentum going for the betterment of this club, then speak and step up. Get nominated or self- nominate. We all need people that have the energy, time, and desire to do something new and maybe better. We want to build on the foundation that our founding members and the members that came on throughout the years have built for us. New ideas and directions are always welcomed here. As Emeril Lagasse always says, “Let’s kick it up, another Notch!” We all have it in us, we just have to put it out there. We’ve had some great leaders with great support, let’s keep this tide rolling! Here’s to all of you that keep the future of this club looking bright. Ti Saluto!

Rick

September 2024                            LaCarota

President’s Message:

Ciao, my fellow Club Paesano members. As always, I hope that this edition of LaCarota finds you all, “Happy, Healthy and safe”! What a busy summer it’s been. I don’t know about you all, but it seems like every day, there is something new to do. Besides work, which always gets in the way, LoL, there seems to be an event, task, or chore to do. Trust me, I don’t mind staying busy, but a day of relaxation is always good too. I hope that everyone is enjoying our beautiful summer and most importantly, having a great time. I’m a few days away from jumping on that big bird that’s going to take me back to the place it all started for most of us, Italia! I can’t believe that the time is already here. When I booked my ticket, it seemed such a long way away from takeoff. Low and behold, it’s here! I’m very excited about going and will be meeting my parents over there. We’ll be spending time with family and friends, in my parents’ home town of “Picinisco”. It’s a very small town in the mountains, but only an hour or so from the beach, or the big mountain. Kind of like Portland. I’m so happy to be able to get my parents back there again. I’m not sure how many more times they’ll physically be able to go, so I’m grateful to have this opportunity to have them with me. I’ll report back with some pictures and some fun stories. If we are friends on Facebook, check it out and I’ll try to keep my account updated with pictures of new adventures. I’ll do my best to make you all jealous!! LOL!

Concert in the Park:

This past Saturday, August 10th, we had our 8th annual Concert in the Park. It was a great day and the weather couldn’t have been better. Not too hot and it stayed dry! I wasn’t too concerned about rain, but the thermometer had me concerned. Mother Nature answered our prayers, and blessed us with a terrific evening. Our guests were very happy and enjoyed it. I was approached by a few of them that had never been to our events before. They loved our park, the lodge and most importantly, our Italian hospitality. They mentioned how well everything was run and how beautiful everything was. Some even asked me about rentals. This is a great thing for Cedarville and the rest of us. As always, Marc Battilega and family cooked up a great dinner featuring our “World Famous” Spaghetti & Meatball dinner. The crowd went wild!!! They loved it. Our Filipino family was so thankful for being able to partner with us once again to raise money for their charity, “Calabarzon”. They were our partner inside for our Carnevale Dance, but never outside for our Concert. They raved about it. In fact, they are talking about maybe collaborating with us on a few different events. It would be a great partnership, but we will see what happens in the future. The Design Band did a fantastic job as always. I swear they have to be one of the hardest working bands out there. They never want to take a break! When they do, they’re chomping at the bit to get back on stage. I’d say, it’s a great problem to have! If you ever need a terrific band for one of your own events, give them a call. Manny will be more than happy to negotiate and accommodate. If you need his number, let me know. I would like to thank everyone that came out and helped with the bigger setup and also volunteered for a shift that night. Every little bit helped us tremendously. Thank you, Kelly Barasch,for stepping into the Volunteer Coordinator role and getting all of the positions and shifts filled. To my regulars, “Te Salute”! Thank you for always being there! These events couldn’t be a success without you all. I don’t have a final count for attendees yet, I’m sure that we’ll have all the numbers for you at next month’s membership meeting. Here’s to our next event, the “Halloween Dance” on Saturday October 19th. Our charity partner will be the “Pink Sista’s” and our musical entertainment will be “Crescendo Skye”. Halloween has always been one of our most popular parties, so keep an eye out on our website and be the 1st people to purchase your tickets. They should go on sale soon. Stay tuned!

Members Appreciation BBQ:

Our Members Appreciation BBQ, has been rescheduled for Sunday October 6th at 12 noon. I appreciate the fact that we all agreed to move it so that I could be in attendance. I look forward to it, and spending time with my fellow CP members. We’ll be having the BBQ pig with all the trimmings from Kuya’s Islander Cafe, once again this year. It was fantastic last year, so we decided to repeat it again. If you aren’t a fan of pork, please let me know and we can try to accommodate you with another type of meat. Also, let me know if you plan on attending so we know how much food to purchase and how many people to set up for. Speaking of setting up, the more the merrier and it makes for a faster set up. Carlos and I would appreciate it. If you can be there by 10am, that should give us plenty of time to arrange the hall or pavilion.  This is a show of appreciation for all of you that volunteer and work hard for this club, making it the best Italian Club in the Pacific Northwest. Thank you!

Italian Farmer’s Picnic:

On Sunday August 4th, Joe Rossi and Rossi Farms, once again hosted all of us to his 3rd annual Italian Farmers and Ranchers Picnic. Again, it didn’t disappoint! Music, cold beer, wine and some of the best food prepared by our very own Greg DeMaestri. Everything was fabulous! Thank you so much Joe Rossi for once again opening up your home to all of us. It’s so kind of you. Your hospitality is off the charts! I also appreciate your strong Italian roots, and the fact that you are keeping Italian traditions and our heritage going. We need so much more of this! Unfortunately, we all get so busy, and sometimes forget to think about who we are and where we come from. Our Italian ancestors that came before us, and where we would be without them. Be proud of your Italian ethnicity and never forget where we all came from. Thank you, Joe, for keeping it alive here in the Portland area and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say, “Here’s to next year’s picnic!”

Paesano Bocce Club:

And with a blink of an eye, we have completed another summer Bocce League season at the courts. What happened? How did it go by so fast? I guess as the old saying goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun”. I’d say it was even more than that! It’s been the best season to date! 4 nights of league bocce from experienced to beginners. 44 teams and now we can boast a membership roster of 160. The league is exploding! It seems that the sport of bocce has gotten to be way more popular and so much more than just an “Old man’s sport”. We’ve had so many new people join in the last few years. It’s showing how popular the sport has become and that the word is out. I’m so proud and happy to be a part of this. We’ve all worked very hard to spread the word and do some recruiting and it shows. I love the fact that a lot of our new members started playing and immediately invited their friends and families to come out and roll. In fact, we’ve even had some people purchase a membership even though they didn’t have a team to play on. They bought a membership so that they could come out, learn the sport and to practice, but most importantly, they did it to support our club, which is so appreciated. Let’s keep this great surge of popularity “ROLLING”, Literally! If you are a current member, we thank you but remember to keep spreading the word and keep inviting new people to come out and play. I feel that the sky’s the limit, and we have plenty of room to accommodate so many more. We have 7 days in a week,,,,,! Our league night came to an end this past Sunday as we held our popular Championship Sunday, where we crowned 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each night. There were plenty of great and competitive matches that were played. The vibe was in the air and all of the teams were looking to get their hands on the metal. The day didn’t disappoint! After it was all said and done, our 1st place winners for each night were, “Vino Rossi” – Monday night Champs. / “Those Guys”– Tuesday Champs. / “Blind Squirrels”– Wednesday Champs/ I’Limoncello – Thursday Champs. Thank you to all of the non-playing members that came to support all of the playing teams. That shows true commitment, respect and camaraderie to your fellow Bocce members. I’d also like to thank all of you that brought food for our “Potluck”. The food was amazing and made the day. Thank you to one of our newest members, Jesse Hanson, for bringing out his smoker and cooking a fantastic brisket for all of us. It melted in your mouth! It was a great ending to such a fantastic season! These were some of the great things that we got to see all season long. Members wanting to help out and participate. I’d also like to thank John Hanson for making pizza and his mouthwatering focaccia sandwiches. Greg DeMaestri for his bolognese sauce and Daniela Sardo for her hand made meatballs. We sold these foods on some of our league nights helping to bring in some monies for our “Raise the Roof” fund. Every little bit helps, and our members appreciated being able to have dinner at the courts instead of having to stop and get something to eat. Speaking of our “Raise the Roof” fund, Paesano bocce is now a 501-C3, so donations of any kind can now be written off on your taxes. We have receipts that we can give to you. Anything will help. Please go to our website at www.paesanobocceclub.com to donate and to see all things bocce! If you haven’t had your fill of bocce yet, or if you are reading all of this and have decided that you want to be a part of it and would like to play, never fear, our “Fall League” will be up and running on Sunday September 8th. If you want to come and play, show up at our bocce courts before 9am. We will put all of our participants’ names in a hat and draw fairly for teams. Each team will be equally balanced according to skill levels. We will play 3 games to 12 and then give you a chance to “Shoot” 4 times. All points from a win and a hit will be accumulated every week by us. At the end of the season, we will tally all of the points to see who ended up on the top of the hill. All games will end at 12 noon. The cost of the entire season will be $25. We will start on September 8th, and will play until Mother Nature says we can’t. Last year we got to play for 8 weeks. Not bad for only $25! This gives all players a chance to get to know other players on our different league nights and also gives our less experienced players a chance to play and learn from some of our veterans of the league. It’s a great experience all the way around. There are also a few more bocce tournaments coming up too. On Sunday August 25th, we’ll be hosting our “Singles” Championship and on Saturday October 12th, our very 1st “Columbus Day” tournament. If you are interested in signing up for any of these, please go to our website to register and for more information. I have breaking news. Today we played in our annual “Festa Italiana” tournament. Once again, another great day hosted by the Paesano Bocce club. A lot of great competition as usual! Our 1st place team was none other than “Vino Rossi”. Man, they have been on a run as of late! 2nd place was “Pallino or Bust”, (the team that I play on) and 3rd was taken by “Peta”. Thanks to all that participated. I’d like to once again thank our board of directors for such a successful season and for all of our hard work since day one. Our President, Mario Pompei, VP- Treasurer, Rick Cervi, Secretary, Kelly Barasch, Maintenance Director, Doug Burchak, Competition Chair, Brad Cotton, Board officers, Carol Neilson and Lori Bass. Paul Barasch (501 C-3) and our Consiglieri, Larry Cereghino. None of this could have been done without you all. Thank You, Here’s to a new roof and an even better 2025! 

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. 

Club Paesano Membership;

If you have someone that is interested in joining our club and has been out to our events and understands what it truly means to be a “Paesano”, then you need to have their membership application into the CP Board no later than the end of September. If you will be sponsoring them, then you need to get them an application. Go to our website to print one out or contact me before our next meeting and I will personally hand you a printed copy. We are looking for energetic people that have ideas, and are willing to help us continue with our Italian heritage and to keep our club going strong for years to come. Please make sure that they understand what is expected of them, and how much we have to offer! Have them come out to our events, like the upcoming Concert in the Park and more, to make sure that we are a good fit for them and them for us! They have to have that desire to be here, and enjoy our Italian traditions and history. We have brought in a good number of members these past few years, so let’s keep it going. Help us to get to that 100-member mark! 

Thoughts & Prayers:

Thoughts and prayers go out to Marie Louise (Petruzelli) Dove. Unfortunately, Marie passed away last week. Marie was the spouse of long-time member, Ron Dove, and sister to member, Steve Petruzelli. Club Paesano sends our condolences to the family. Marie’s funeral will be held on Wednesday August 21st at “Saint John the Baptist Church in Milwaukie. (10955 SE 25TH ST.) The Rosary will be at 10:30 am followed by the funeral at 11am. There will be a reception in the church hall after the funeral services. Steve has asked me to invite all of our CP Members. If you are available and can attend, I’m sure that the family would appreciate it. Thoughts and Prayers to all of our CP Members and our families. May the good Lord bless us all and keep us protected! If you would like me to include anyone on our prayer chain. Please let me know as soon as you can so that I can include it in our newsletters.

LaCarota Question:

Well now, we’ve had our share of new winners the last few months but once again we came full circle and our last winner was, the one, the only, the myth and the Vino Winning Legend,,,,, You guessed it Mario “The Mauler”, The Massachusetts Kid”, “The Vino Whisperer”, POM– PEI! He’s a perfect example of a player. Always sending in responses to the questions. That’s why he’s the “Vino King”! Because I’m already on vacation mode, this month’s question is going to be pretty laid back. Pretty easy at that!

My question is this; What specific town in Italy will I be visiting, and in what province is that town in? Ok, that’s it! All correct answers will be entered to win the coveted bottle of vino which I will give out at our October’s meeting as I won’t be there for our September’s meeting.

Final Thoughts:

Because of my vacation, I will be leaving town on August 20th and will not return till the 23rd of September. There will not be a newsletter next month, but Debbie Calcagno Guthrie, may surprise you all with something. I’m not positive on that yet. In my absence, our very own VP, Jimmy C, will be running the Board meeting, and also the General Membership meeting. You will be in great hands. I’ll miss being there, but I have to admit, I’d rather be spending the next month in Italy. No offense! LoL! I’ve been to Italy several times now, and it still never gets old! The history, beauty and way of life is to die for. Every time I go back, and sit in my dad’s childhood home, wander the streets of my parents’ town, and explore the big cities, I can’t help but get a huge, huge sense of pride! Being Italian to me is the best. There’s no nationality in this world that I’d rather be. That’s why the country is visited by so many, and is loved by all. If you haven’t been to Italy yet, I would really suggest going. Put it on your “Bucket List” of the most important things to do, especially being Italian. It’s where it all started for us. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed! You’ll understand why we are such a “Proud” bunch of people! My wish for all of you is to get there one time at least! As I said earlier, I will try to post a lot of pictures on Facebook and will keep in touch with some of you. I’m sure that I’ll have some stories when I get back. Have a great Labor Day, and a terrific rest of your summer. I will see you all when I return. Ciao for now!

Salute

Rick

August 2024                                  LaCarota

President’s Message:

Ciao amici soci del Club Paesano.Spero che questa newsletter vi trovi tutti felici, sani e sicuri, as always! If you read my newsletters then you know exactly what I just said! LoL! My goodness my favorite season is just flying by. I know that I said the exact same thing last month, but my, my, we’re already approaching the end of July! Writing LaCarota seems like it’s every other week anymore. I hope that you all are keeping well and getting the most of these long summer days. It’s been a hot summer so far, but this week is supposed to be more comfortable, only in the 80’s. Let me know if you’re doing anything exciting that you’d like to share with the rest of your members here in the LaCarota. We’re always glad to hear of a good situation, vacation or just a great day! I’d be happy to post it here in next month’s issue. Well, whatever you’re all up to, have loads of fun, be careful, and send some pictures!! Most of all, ENJOY!

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 3 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!

*UPDATE*. We are currently at 110 tickets sold. We really need to start a big push to get us over the 300-guest mark. We can accommodate way more than that so “SELL, SELL, SELL”! I want you all to have a great time, but we also have to do our part to make this a successful event. This is our only event that we ask our members to volunteer at besides setting up and tearing down. As this is an outdoor event and there are a lot of cogs that turn the big wheel, we will need you all to volunteer some time to make it roll. If you are planning on attending, then we expect you to work at least a 90-minute shift. There are plenty of jobs to do and many different shifts, so please expect to work one. Kelly Barasch has volunteered to be our “Volunteer Coordinator”, and will be reaching out to you to sign you up for your time slot. Please let her know what job you’d like and when you would like to do it. The earlier you get on the list, the better the chances of you getting the shift you want. If you would like to work multiple shifts or have a spouse, partner, family member or friend that would like to volunteer with you, that will be great and we can definitely accommodate that! If you need to contact Kelly, her number is 971-806-9524, or email her at [email protected]  Please don’t hesitate. This is all for the good of our club! I want you to volunteer, but also have a chance to enjoy the evening as well! Let’s make it a great one!

Paesano Bocce Club:

Our Paesano Bocce leagues are going well and it’s hard to believe that we are already heading into our 1st round of league playoffs next week. It feels like we just got underway. Each night, from Monday to Thursday, have been going so well! Every night is competitive, tough and most important, FUN! It has been a joy to watch. There have been a few of us that have been out there every night and all say the same thing, “it’s been GREAT!” Everyone, from our beginners of Thursday night to our veterans of Monday night, seem to be getting better and better! I tell you; we have a fantastic thing going on here. The league has already grown tenfold and we are already looking to expand into our “Fall League” and next year. We already have new people asking how they can join and want to be a part of it next season. It’s great to be a part of this and I encourage you to take part if you haven’t done so yet. You can go to our website at www.paesanobocceclub.com or speak to one of our board members for more info or if you’d like to go out and play a few games to get acquainted with bocce. Last weekend we had a full two days of bocce, with Saturday being our N.W. Challenge. Our friends from up north in WA, came down to compete against us from Oregon in a “Ryder Cup” style play. Well for the 1st time in 10 years, our Washington brothers and sisters actually beat us. It was close, with a lot of games that could have gone either way, but at the end of the day, they did what they needed to do to win the day! Congratulations to them! They’re a great bunch of people and are like family to most of us now. Like good siblings, we need to let them have a win now and then. We still want them to play with us! LoL! The next day, Sunday, we played our annual “Aldo Rossi” Tournament sponsored by our very own, Nick Rossi. Thank you, Nick, for doing it year after year. We couldn’t pull it off without your support! We still had players from WA, and our own members teaming up for a very hard-fought tournament. The competition was excellent and it made for a very entertaining day. At the end of it all it was “Pallino or Bust” that took 1st place! I had the good fortune to be on the winning team that day. Brad Cotton, Joachim Cretien, Christopher Caligere, and myself had the honor of hoisting the coveted “Aldo Rossi” Trophy! It was a hard-fought win, but it felt great at the end of the day. “Vino Rossi” Featuring our members, Nick Rossi, Larry Cereghino, Mike and Chance Rossi, took 2nd place. “Andiamo”, featuring Mario Pompei, Doug Burchak, Kelly Barasch and Vince Moore, tied for 3rd and 4th. John Benagni and Danny Taylor were also part of that tie with their own team. What a day! We have a few more tournaments coming up plus our league playoffs and our Championship Sunday on Sunday August 11th. If you’re not doing anything and would like to watch some good games and cheer on some of your fellow Paesano members, come on out and show your support! As you all know, Paesano Bocce Club has now become a “501-C3” and can accept contributions, whether monetary, labor, material, etc. and we are looking for sponsors for tournaments and to help us “Raise the Roof” over our 4 “World Class courts”. We’re starting to get everything in order and we will be going to the city of Gresham soon to get things started. If you can help us out in any way, please go to our website, or even better speak to one of our board members. We’ll be glad to answer any questions that you may have. At our “Concert in the Park”, Paesano Bocce will be one of our Charity partners too. We are going to raise money for our roof and are in need of donation items for our raffle and will also be in need of people willing to help with running the booth. There will be shifts, so you can still enjoy the concert and help us out too. Any items will be appreciated. Vacation rentals, sporting tickets, tools, gift baskets and cards, etc. If you have something to donate and can donate some time, please get a hold of Kelly Barasch at 971-806-9524 and let her know. I’d also like to give a huge shout out to these great people for all of the hard work that we have all put in throughout the season to make everything run smoothly! President – Mario Pompei / VP- Treasurer- Rick Cervi/ Chief of Maintenance- Doug Burchak / Secretary- Kelly Barasch/ Consiglieri – Larry Cereghino. THANK YOU!! Don’t miss out on the fun. There’s still time to get out there and play. Our “Fall Leagues” will be starting up in September and will run till Mother Nature says no more. Go to our website to register. We’ll see you on the courts!

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. 

Club Paesano Membership;

If you have someone that is interested in joining our club and has been out to our events and understands what it truly means to be a “Paesano”, then you need to have their membership application into the CP Board no later than the end of September. If you will be sponsoring them, then you need to get them an application. Go to our website to print one out or contact me before our next meeting and I will personally hand you a printed copy. We are looking for energetic people that have ideas, and are willing to help us continue with our Italian heritage and to keep our club going strong for years to come. Please make sure that they understand what is expected of them, and how much we have to offer! Have them come out to our events, like the upcoming Concert in the Park and more, to make sure that we are a good fit for them and them for us! They have to have that desire to be here, and enjoy our Italian traditions and history. We have brought in a good number of members these past few years, so let’s keep it going. Help us to get to that 100-member mark!

Italian Farmers Picnic:

On Sunday August 4th from 5pm- 9pm, Joe Rossi will be hosting his annual “Italian Farmers Picnic. This will be his 3rd year of hosting this wonderful event, which will be held at his home. The address is 3701 NE 122ND Ave, Portland. Joe has been so gracious in opening up his home to all of us, and providing us with great food, drink, music and fun! Our very own Greg DeMeistri will be cooking and keeping us fed with his great Italian dishes! Keeping in the Italian tradition of family, friendships and love, Joe is inviting all of us Paesano members to come and enjoy at no cost to anyone. If you haven’t been to the last 2, I strongly advise coming to this one. Don’t miss out on a Fantastic Time!! Joe would also like us to extend the invitation to any and all Italians we may know. Like he says, the more the merrier! Thank you, Joe, once again for being such a gracious host to us Paesano’s and the whole Italian community. Let the good times roll!

Thoughts & Prayers:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Domenic Giusto’s mom Irene. She had a stroke yesterday and is currently at Providence hospital. In last month’s newsletter Greg DeMeistri’s mom, Lynda, wasn’t doing well. Since then, she has passed away. CP would like to give Greg and his family our condolences. Please pray for Doug Burchak’s dad Jay. He’s had a rough time of late and could use some extra love! Please pray for all of our Paesano members and their families too. If you would like me to add anyone to our prayer chain, please let me know before the end of the month so that I can get it in the newsletter on time.

LaCarota Question:

Last month we didn’t draw a winner, so we will do it this month. If you answered last month’s question, then you may have a good chance at winning two bottles of Vino at our next meeting, which is Wednesday August 7th at 7:15pm. Just wanted to make sure that we all remember. So now that we are heading into the month of August, my question has to do with the month and what happens in Italy this month. So here it is. My question is, “What is the big event that takes place in Italy every August?” There you go, another softball question. I’m giving you all a chance to catch up to the “Vino King” Mario “The Mauler” Pom-Pei’! All correct questions will have a chance to win the coveted bottle of Vino! You can’t win if you don’t play, so get them in! Good luck.

Final Thoughts:

As we wind into the “Dog Days” of summer and everything that we all have going on around us, I ask you to take a few moments to think about Club Paesano. I’d like you to think about your time as a member, and how it has been for you no matter how long or short. I ask you to think about what it’s done for you and what you have done for it. Do you see it going in the right direction? Do you think that we could change things up? Maybe go a different course with things and bring in new ideas and events. Perhaps you are of the mindset that things are good the way they are, and that we shouldn’t change a thing. In the next few months, I’d like to hear some feedback about your thoughts. I’ve spoken with some of you about it at times, but I would like to hear from everyone if you have an opinion about it. I feel that the club is doing well, but like everything in life may need to make a small or large adjustment here and there, whether a small tweak or a major overhaul. I believe that our foundation is strong and I would love to keep us going in the right direction. Just remember, that this club can’t survive without its members, and your volunteering. It’s a club that is based on work given by our members. It’s very important to me to keep you all involved in whatever way you can. I have all the confidence in the world that this club is the best in the Pacific Northwest, and we all want it to stay that way. Keep up the great work, and let me know your thoughts. “Saluto tutti voi e le vostre famiglie”!

Ciao,

Rick