UPCOMING SOCIETY EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

ANNUAL WINE-TASTING ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2016

You should definitely not miss out on our most popular event of the year, which will be held Sunday, November 20, 2016, at 1:00 p.m. in Casa Italiana. We are pleased once again to present our annual wine-tasting. Our wine-making members and friends will be bringing samples of their production to share with the attending members, friends and guests.

This year, instead of our usual porchetta, a delicious lunch will be provided by 3 Brothers Restaurant. Because of the difficulty in using the Casa Italiana kitchen this year, we are instead offering a menu of orrechiete with broccoli rabe in garlic and olive oil, sausage and peppers, rice, bread, salad and dessert. The wine-tasting is being organized by Romeo Sabatini, who in past years has done an outstanding job in coordinating the event.

Romeo is being assisted this year by Jim Gearing. Based on previous years, there is sure to be a variety of wonderful wines to be tasted – as well as limoncello! The program will begin with a brief AMHS general meeting at which time we will elect three members of the board of directors (please read related article by the Nominating Committee thanking the outgoing board members and offering candidates for election). We will have a raffle with some wonderful prizes, to benefit the AMHS Scholarship Fund. The deadline for paid reservations is November 16, 2016. Please make your reservations early to make sure you don’t miss out on this fun event!!

REPORT OF THE AMHS NOMINATING COMMITTEE

The following members of the Board of Directors will have their terms of office end on December 31 of this year: Rocco Caniglia, Helen Free (who was appointed by the President to fill out the remainder of a Board member’s term in 2015), and Sergio Fresco. We owe a debt of gratitude for their service to the Society. The Nominating Committee, whose role it is to nominate members to stand for election to fill these vacancies, is very pleased to have found well-qualified members who are willing to serve. We are happy to announce the following slate of nominees:

Board of Directors

Jeff Clark

Helen Free

Albert Paolantonio

Election for the Board members will be held at the November 20 general Society meeting. The three individuals are well-known to the Society, having served as an officer before and/or been a Society member since 2000. The biographies for Jeff, Helen, and Albert are found, below.

Biography for Jeff Clark

Mr. Jeffrey (Jeff) Clark grew up in Utah and has lived the last ten years in the District of Columbia. He works as chief financial officer for a small government contractor holding an MBA degree and CPA designation. He is the single father of three children, 24 and 17-year old sons, and a 21 year-old daughter who all live with him. In addition to the AMHS, Jeff is a member of the Lucchesi nel Mondo Tuscany Club, and in 2011 served as the Secretary of the Festa Italiana Foundation. He claims Italian heritage through his 6th great grandfather who was a native of Naples and immigrated to New Orleans in the early 1700s. Jeff previously served on the Board and was the AMHS Treasurer from 2014 through 2015.

Biography for Helen Free

Helen’s grandfather, Frank Antonelli, was born in Mascioni, (AQ). He emigrated in 1906 at the age of 11. Helen’s family remains close to relatives in Mascioni and Rome. Helen has taught English at Gonzaga College High School since 1983. She co-founded Italy, In Other Words, a writing workshop based for 5 years in Abruzzo. She co-founded and organized Let’s Blog Abruzzo, a conference to encourage Italian and Italian-American bloggers to write about the region. Currently, she is a co-founder of the Abruzzo Blogger Community. She is a member of the AMHS Fundraising Committee and has been instrumental to the redesign of the AMHS website.

Biography for Albert Paolantonio

Albert Paolantonio was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, and has remained in the Arlington area for most of his adult life. He graduated in 1983 from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, and then started working for the Department of Defense as a Budget Analyst. In 2014, he retired after 32 years of service! He has studied the Italian language on Sundays for about 20 years at Casa Italiana, and is a lover of all things Italian. His grandfather moved to the Boston area from Roccasicura (Isernia) in Molise in 1913. He has visited there several times, as well as many other towns in Molise, and throughout Italia. His interest in the Abruzzo Molise Heritage Society began shortly after the club began in 2000. He has been a member since, and enjoyed discovering more information about the two regions, and, in the process, has developed some very close friendships among the Society. He has supported the Society over the years in various capacities, and, at this time, is very interested in bringing his passion for the Society, and Italia, to the next level as a board member. He is also interested in Genealogy, and has a variety of other active interests, such as travel, exercise, gardening, and socializing with family and friends.

A SPECIAL APPEAL!

The Society needs your help as we do not have a candidate for Secretary. Maria Fresco has done an exceptional job and agreed to serve an additional one-year term when we were unable to find a qualified candidate for Secretary at the end of 2015. The candidate for Secretary would serve a 1 (one)-year term, beginning January 1, 2017. The primary role of the Secretary is to take the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee, which meets six (6) times a year, on the third Thursday of February, April, June, August, October, and December. Please consider being an integral part of the support system for our members and for our Society. We need your help! Respectfully submitted by the

Nominating Committee:

Lucio D’Andrea, Ennio DiTullio, Sergio Fresco, and Joe Novello