A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear members and friends:

Fall is definitely in the air now, as we make our way through November. As I write this message, memories of our September 22nd general meeting are still fresh. This is understandable, inasmuch as the meeting, held at Casa Italiana, was a great success, as measured both by the number of participants (over 80) and by their expressed enjoyment of the program and food. The program reflected our meeting’s association with the Vespa Rally of 2019, which occurred on the third weekend of September.

Be sure to see Nancy DeSanti’s article on our meeting and on the rally on page 1 of this newsletter. In the course of the rally weekend, our society sponsored the “arrosticini abruzzesi” barbeque that was held at La Moto in Arlington, Virginia on the evening of Friday, September 20. In addition, we also had a role to play in the “crespelle” breakfast on the morning of Saturday, September 21, the purpose of which was to pay tribute to the designer of the Vespa — Corradino D’Ascanio, a native son of Abruzzo.

During the breakfast, both Domenico Bellantone, the Counselor for Consular Coordination and Social Affairs at the Italian Embassy in Washington, and your President had the opportunity to give some remarks. Counselor Bellantone addressed the importance of the Vespa in post-War Italy and showed how it became so much more than a simple means of transportation. I focused on the life and work of Corradino D’Ascanio, who designed the Vespa in 1946 and whose creativity and innovative thinking puts him in the company of other illustrious Italian designers. The written version of my remarks is in an article on the next page.

This year, as in the past, the AMHS was a supporter of the annual Columbus Day festivities in Washington, D.C. In addition, some of our members took part in the various events that were part of the festivities, which were held at Columbus Circle in front of Union Station. On November 2, just a couple of weeks after the Columbus Day celebration, some of our members ventured to the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington to enjoy the sights and sounds of the NIAF Expo Italiana 2019.

This year’s exhibitors included some vendors from Molise, NIAF’s 2019 Region of Honor, as well other Italian and Italian-American firms offering numerous kinds of food, drink, coffee, sweets and other goods and services. The Society’s activities continue with our upcoming general meeting on November 17th. This is our annual wine tasting event in which several AMHS winemakers, as well as other local winemakers, bring their products to the meeting for our tasting enjoyment. It is always an enjoyable afternoon, so mark your calendar.

One order of business that we will take care of at our November meeting will be the election of three new members of the Board of Directors to replace those whose term expires at the end of this year. The candidates are John Dunkle, Chris Renneker, and Joseph (Sonny) Scafetta, and I thank them for their willingness to assist in the running of our Society. Their bios appear in a separate article later in this newsletter. I am also grateful to the members they are stepping up to replace: Jeff Clark, Helen Free and Albert Paolantonio, who have each made significant contributions to the Board and to our Society through their ideas and loyal service.

As we move into the last remaining weeks of 2019, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our members and friends a healthy and enjoyable holiday season. I would also like to thank those members who have supported our meetings and activities throughout the year. Without your interest and participation in our events, our organization would exist in name only and, of course, would be a lot less fun.

Best regards,

Ray LaVerghetta