July or August should be the magic month for us to again get together at Notre Dame Hall, although we have not yet heard from them as to if or when they will open their doors to us. Keep tuned for info.

In Italy, the Naples Bay and the area surrounding it sits on a giant caldera that rivals the size of Yellowstone Park in North America. The magma chamber that sits beneath the bay causes the landmass

In preparation to writing this article I reread the last column I wrote for IL LEONE, with our collected hopes that the Lodge would reopen in October 2020. Didn’t happen! Not close! Now finally, with the advent of vaccinations and precautions, I think we can breathe a little easier, and try to pick up where we left off. Our President Joe LaPorta and I recently had lunch, and he told me of the wonderful plans, and you’ll be happy to hear them! Getting to this point wasn’t easy Joe said, as he had to wade through a myriad of issues and regulations from the State of California, the city of Palm Springs and liquor board. All with their own directives and issues. Joe further regaled me with stories of keeping our Lodge maintenance up, and stories of encounters with those that wanted to make the grounds and Lodge their new home!

The doors are set to swing open this coming October 13th 2021, and there to herald your arrival will be Joe and Lori, at the front desk, checking your name of the list, Renee and her kitchen crew masterfully preparing dinner, and our ever charismatic Frank Di Salvo strumming a few chords on his guitar and greeting all! Saw Lori Harvey the other evening and she said she has her list of names out to start calling you for reservations and a cheerful word.

In other words we’re all enthusiastic to start a new season of our Lodge. We have a fantastic Lodge, amazing entertainers

PONDERING THE PAST
An Italian Pilgrimage

My second visit to Italy was in 2002, 40 years after my first visit...yes, things changed ...my cousin Rino said, “in 40 years Italy has caught up with the rest of the world”.
My journey this time took me to Lourdes.
My nephew attended the school “la Nostra Famiglia”in San Vito. They dispensed special permission for me to tag along. We met at the train station, and boarded a Cuccette..(a sleeper train)...our trip to Lourdes France would be a 15 hour train ride. The train was so long they had to leave at 2 different intervals. Our pilgrimage had over 1000 Italians.
One side note...I sat by a lady and showed her some photos my dad had taken on my first trip to Italy...in 1961...she looked through the photos and pointed to a lady she said was her aunt. (go figure)
Our group was assigned 3 ”little sister”

Well, it finally happened.

After 16 months of picnics, and outside activities, Saddleback Valley Lodge # 2566 has moved back home, (the Norman Murray Center). We just had the most enjoyable meeting with over 50 Members and friends coming back to enjoy a great Greek meal and lots of fun and conversation. We also had a very active game of Bingo with tons of white elephant gifts. It was wonderful to see and talk with so many of our members. Quite a few did not participate in the picnics due to health concerns, (understandable). We are currently meeting on Wednesday nights

Happy Summer everyone. It looks as though our Lodge has not published an article for quite some time. Boy was last year a mess. We did not hold any meetings or gatherings last year but continued to do somewhat regular newsletters to keep our members in touch and informed.

May 2021 was our first in-person meeting. We moved our meeting site to the Reno Elks Lodge #597. They have a beautiful, large kitchen and a huge room for our meetings. We held Festa there a couple times and it worked out fabulously. Many members and friends were anxious to return and we had our usual 50ish people in attendance. Hugh Ricci gave us a fun heritage game to play as our first program of 2021. We recognized milestone members this month. Bill Nelson and Sam Olson for 5 years; Barbara Wisniewski and Paul Romero for 15 years; Christine and Larry Handy for 25 years; and Pam and Hugh Ricci