A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Members and Friends/Cari Soci ed Amici,
Our New Year 2015 is off to an incredible start. We had a very successful general Society meeting on January 25, when we received a very informative and enlightening program by Major Elio Manes on the Bersaglieri. The Major brought his family up from Newport News, VA, and needless to say, his daughters were a delight as was his wife, Annalisa.
We were also fortunate to have with us Colonel Rodolpho Sganga, the Military Attaché, Embassy of Italy (the Colonel replaced BG Tornabene, a good friend to AMHS who spoke to us on a couple of occasions on Italian military history). Be sure to read Nancy DeSanti’s article on the meeting on page 2. We had a very successful fundraising drive for the AMHS Scholarship Endowment Fund. As this issue went to print, we received $4,175 in donations, our most successful campaign so far.
We are most thankful to the generosity of our members, and to the hard work of the Fundraising Committee: Helen Free, Chair; Dick DiBuono; and Lourdes Tinajero. We are very pleased to announce that in 2015, AMHS celebrates its 15th anniversary! Hard to imagine how far we’ve come from our very humble and austere beginning. We are currently at 278 members, of which 37 percent joined in 2000 and 2001; almost 50 percent have been members for 10 years. These are pretty impressive statistics. In honor of our officers, the leadership of Holy Rosary Church – who have also been ardent supporters of AMHS – but most importantly, in honor of our members, we will be hosting a celebration on Sunday, June 28 at 1:00 pm in Casa Italiana.
We are in the early stages of planning this event, which will be free of charge, for AMHS members only; AMHS scholarship recipients; and invited guests who represent other Italian American organizations and entities with whom we have partnered over the years. So save the date, and keep an eye out for your invitation. We hope you will join us to celebrate all that we have done over the years, as well as our plans to grow and thrive for another 15 years and more!
We are also pleased to let you know that we are working with a website developer to redesign the AMHS website. We will be streamlining information and creating a site that is our Society’s window to the outside world. We owe our sincerest gratitude to Romeo Sabatini who developed the current website, and has maintained it, for over 10 years. I look forward to seeing you at our next event, the general Society meeting scheduled for Sunday, March 29. As you will read on page 2, our meeting will be held at Carmine’s Restaurant, and seating is limited, so make sure to make your paid reservation early!
Cordiali saluti,
Maria D’Andrea