SAVE THE DATE!

We are celebrating our 100th Anniversary on September 17th, 2022. Please save this date. We are coordinating with Grand Council and State President Barbara Fumosa Wisniewski to reduce travel. We will be sending more details in the coming months, but for now, please reserve this date to join us in our celebration. This is a very big accomplishment, not just for Colombo-Stella, but for all of Sons and Daughters of Italy. Our Lodge got the sad news that member LeRoy Scolari had passed away in January. LeRoy has always lived in Lompoc, but was a member of Colombo-Stella exclusively. In March, he would have been a member for 70 years!! I would call LeRoy every few months to let him know what was happening with our Lodge. The calls would always last for more than an hour,

“Meet & Potatoes”

Roma Lodge is in the San Joaquin Valley, the richest agriculture region in the world. Most of our charter members were farmers or dairymen who immigrated from Italy in the late 1890’s and formed the lodge over 90 years ago in 1930. Although, we do not grow a lot of potatoes in our area I was struck by an article in a local agriculture publication announcing the annual “Meet and Potato” conference of growers and exhibitors in Anaheim. They have over 2,000 attendees each year at the convention center with exhibits, breakout sessions and a lot of activities for everyone to learn about potatoes and enjoy.

You may be asking yourself

Happy 2022. It has been quite awhile since I have written an article. We, the Mother Lodge, are entering our 100th year. Our Lodge was founded in September of 1922, and since we are the first and oldest Italian fraternal organization in all of California, this is a very big deal. Some of you may remember the time our Lodge nearly folded, twice. We had some very lean times, but we rebounded.

We are planning to have a huge celebration in September and I need everyone to help. There are 100 years of memories, pictures and documents that are in our members archives. I am asking everyone to look into their picture albums, their clippings and send me any highlights you think I should have. I plan to make a special video of the people that have been instrumental in Colombo-Stella’s 100 years.

I need to start this project early, so please check asap. I will give more details of our event as it gets closer. I am trying to coordinate

On Sunday, December 19, members of the Cornelia-Vita Nuova Lodge of San Francisco visited Firehouse #28 in North Beach to drop off toys to the firemen stationed there for their Toys for Tots program. It was a beautiful, brisk day in the City, and it was the first time that we were together as a lodge since March 7, 2020. It felt great to be with our Brothers and Sisters performing an act of kindness for those less fortunate. The firehouse, in the Italian district of San Francisco, has been remodeled but the interior floors still have bricks that hearken back to the days of horse-drawn fire trucks. The edge of the bricks even had the green

December was a busy month for Roma Lodge members. The lodge held their annual Christmas party and a fundraiser drive-thru on the same day. We had over 120 members attend the Christmas party with nearly 30 junior members receiving candy stockings from Santa Claus. The “Dinner for Two” ravioli dinner drive-thru was also very successful with over 300 meals served which included ravioli, BBQ chicken, rigatoni, salad, bread, green beans, and wine. The organization is planning on having their Italian food booth at the World Ag Expo in February.

Roma Lodge lost a 52-year member of the lodge with the passing of Diane Della. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Conservatory of Music at University of Pacific in Stockton, CA. Diane had a 30+ years long career at Fresno Unified where she created curriculum used in many classrooms