A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear members and friends:
Here we are in the New Year — 2020! Where has the time gone? While I don’t know the answer to that question, I do know that the preceding months have been good ones for our society. I make that assessment based on the numbers of members and friends at our general meetings last year and on the extent to which they appeared to enjoy themselves. The quality of our guest speakers was also at its usual high level. In January 2019, we were treated to “Jazz Italian Style” with Georgetown University Professor Anna Harwell Celenza — an informative and interesting presentation. In March, we returned to Alfio’s La Trattoria in Bethesda, Maryland, for an entertaining discussion of AMHS member Kirsten Keppel’s film on the tradition of St. Joseph’s Table.
Carmine Vittoria was a guest for our June meeting and talked about wartime survival and perseverance in small-town Italy — experiences recounted in his book “Bitter Chicory to Sweet Espresso.” In August, we had an excellent turnout for our annual Ferragosto picnic at Fort Ward Park in Alexandria, Virginia, where those in attendance enjoyed good food and very good company. In September, we packed Casa Italiana for a celebration of the Vespa. Our meeting was the final event of the Vespa Rally weekend in Washington, D.C. AMHS member Willy Meaux, who is also President and Chairman of the Vespa Committee of Washington, D.C. Inc., showed us a short documentary on Corradino D’Ascanio, the engineer from Abruzzo who designed the first Vespa.
We also heard from, and had the chance to meet, our two scholarship winners for the academic year 2018-2019 — Francesca Minicozzi and Kathryn Donato. Finally, in November, we filled Casa Italiana again for our meeting with the winemakers of the area, who showed up in unprecedented numbers. We also heard from Julia Paola, one of our scholarship winners for the 2019-2020 academic year. Our society was honored in February of last year when our President Emeritus Lucio D’Andrea received the Order of the Star of Italy at a ceremony at the Italian Embassy in Washington. The award recognized Lucio’s many contributions to the Italian American community in the metropolitan area and made his family and extended family (us) proud of his accomplishments. Not everything was perfect about 2019. A number of our longtime members struggled with illness last year, and several of them passed away. Among the latter was Emma DiTullio, a faithful member and spouse of founding AMHS member Ennio DiTullio.
No words can express the difficulty of their loss, but we take some consolation in the knowledge that their memories will be with us in the New Year and afterward. Regarding the society’s business, on November 3rd of last year our Executive Committee (composed of the society’s officers and board of directors) opted not to continue our affiliation with the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF). The committee’s decision followed on the heels of NIAF’s late-October move to discontinue its policy of matching scholarship funds — the linchpin of our 2015 agreement. Our board reasoned that the benefits of continuing our affiliation with NIAF at the Da Vinci Council level were no longer commensurate with the costs. Despite the loss of these matching funds, the society will consider the possibility of continuing to award two scholarships every year, mindful, of course, that it will need to raise additional funds in order to do so.
Our Scholarship Committee is now looking at this option as well as other matters related to the administration of the program. The need for increased fundraising for our scholarships leads naturally into our current scholarship fundraising drive. All of our members should have received by now our 2019 Scholarship Fundraising Report. The report acknowledges the generosity of those supporters who have donated in the past, and it is our hope that it will be a stimulus for them, and others, to donate during our present drive. I can think of no better way to ensure that our Italian language, culture and heritage remain alive and vibrant for future generations than to support our scholarship program. If you have had the opportunity to hear or meet some of our past scholarship winners, I am sure that you will agree. As we look to manage our program without matching funds from NIAF, our annual fundraising drive will be more essential than ever.
I invite you to consider making a donation, which will enable the young people coming after us to forge deeper ties with Italy and its culture and traditions. In addition to donating, there is another way in which you can assist our Scholarship Program and its goals: you can spread the word about it to your children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues. Publicity of our program will not only strengthen it but will also ensure that young people with ties to Abruzzo and Molise are aware of an opportunity to lighten the financial burden of a college education.
Looking ahead, please mark your calendar for our first general meeting of 2020, which will take place on January 26th at Casa Italiana. Our guest speaker will be author, journalist and documentary producer Paul Paolicelli, who will speak on immigration from Southern Italy and its impact on the United States. We will also swear in our three new Board members: John Dunkle, Chris Renneker and Joseph “Sonny” Scafetta, Jr. They will replace Jeff Clark, Helen Free and Albert Paolantonio. I take this opportunity to thank Jeff, Helen and Albert for their significant contributions to the deliberations of the board. Their commitment and talents were instrumental in every success that our society achieved during their tenure. And please note that June of 2020 will mark the 20th anniversary of the AMHS. You will be hearing more about this in the coming months. I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year, and I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.
Best regards
, Ray LaVerghetta