The 2021 Northcoast Veteran Stand Down was to be held this year on August 6th at the Eureka Veterans Hall on H Street. Due to the covid resurgence among the unvaccinated in Humboldt County the Stand Down has been canceled for this year.

Thank you to Dave and Donna Olivieri for staying on top of the changing situation with this event and annually organizing this project that recognizes and thanks our veterans for their service

Greeting from Redding,
I hope none of your lodge members have lost homes due to the many fires that have impacted California. While it is very smoky, and very hot in Redding, we are not in the line of any fire at this time.

We continue to have our general meetings although the attendance is low. We have held our monthly council meeting through the pandemic and continue with the upkeep on our lodge. We held a drive through Spaghetti dinner in June and had about 200 dinners go out. Thanks to all our members who helped with this event.

We had to skip our crab feed in 2021, but plans are under way for our other large fundraiser, Paesano Days. Our bocce tournament of 32 teams

Ernie Rota
1924 - 2021

It is with great sadness for our lodge
as we said farewell to our beloved
member. Ernie lived his entire life in
Napa, a community he loved dearly.
He was an active member of the Napa
community, a life-long member of St.
John's Catholic Church, served as a
member of the City Council from
1966-1973, and actively participated
in our Napa lodge

ATTENTION ALL SDOIA MEMBERS !
Remember that our Ambassador of Happiness, Louise is now gone from us and we will drink a toast to her. Remember what she always said - Be kind to someone today and that kindness will return back to you in many ways...Stay well and please join us August 8th...

Sixteen months ago, March 2020, we had our last SDOIA meeting of the Cesare Battisti Lodge in Petaluma. As we look ahead to this coming August 8th, a Sunday at 2PM in the afternoon, we will be having our first post pandemic meeting and early dinner at our new location in Rohnert Park, just a hop north of Petaluma. We are meeting at 5099 Snyder Lane in the Club House of the Rancho Grande

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”