Brothers and Sisters,

In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue and on September 15th and 16th, Londi and I sailed up I-5 to Redding California for their Paesano Day’s Celebration which has spanned 30+ years. What a fun trip! I was invited by Tony George, President of Chico’s Vincenzo Bellini Lodge #2519, to be a part of their Bellini Bocce Team. We played hard but the pollino wasn’t rolling very good for us. There were 32 teams that entered. The Tournament

Brothers and Sisters,

On July 28^th, I traveled up to Klamath Falls, Oregon to pay respects to our sister Louise Holst who passed away on July 8^th and to visit Yolanda Rosterolla, one of our longest and oldest members at age 97. Louise was a long-time member of the Camelia-Colombo Lodge #1294 and held many offices. She was always there if people needed any help, and she was known as the best hairdresser in Klamath Falls owning the “Family Hairloom

 Brothers and Sisters,

I first would like to thank everyone who worked on the 86th Grand Lodge Convention Committee, Lynn Lawrence Murphy, Lori and Mark Rossi and all the members from the Reno Colombo Lodge. I may have left out somebody so I apologize if I did.

The Convention was packed with many activities from opening ceremony, where Maria Fazzio Pignati sang both our National Anthem and our Italian National Anthem to the swearing in of our New Grand Lodge President Arlene Nunziati. On Wednesday, we started out with the Bocce Tournament and then Thursday night

It’s been an interesting few months. I spent half of November in Europe investigating the Italian Influence on food in Budapest, Vienna and Prague. It was an informative trip but the food was very different from what I expected.

The Grand Lodge has a temporary office in Sacramento. I drove to Sacramento on Sunday December 18 and was able to get all the computers, printers, copiers and phones back online. Our new landlord has been very gracious in giving us access to their high-speed internet at no charge. Our State Vice President

It's September and starting to get busy again. I was privileged to go to Enrico Caruso lodges 95th Anniversary and represent our President. I was thrilled to be able to do this as one of my earliest lodge visits for anything when I was a young man (many moons ago) was to Visalia. My wife was one of our 5 Grand Lodge queens and was invited to ride in the parade in Visalia. I have been there many times since and have always been treated like family.

While we were in Fresno for Grand Council, I was able to attend their 100th Anniversary. It was held at the Fresno Fairgrounds