Colombo-Stella Lodge #1149

Hello members. It is now November, and this pandemic has certainly changed the face of how Order has worked this year. Since it is my job to submit a yearly report to my members, and we still aren’t meeting, I will do it here. I am a bad news first President, so here is the bad news:

1. Our Lodge has not met in person since the pandemic took a foothold in March 2020.
2. We have no revenue from our 98th Anniversary Fundraiser that was cancelled.
3. We have no revenue from the KISS Country/MEGA 97.9 Summer Concert series that was cancelled.
4. Many of our members were unable to work and could not pay their dues.
5. The Grand Lodge has sent suggested recommendations on how to proceed with an election during the covid 19 pandemic. Our Lodge has decided to continue with the same Officers for the 2021/2022 term. This is bad news, because we have several open offices that need to be filled. I have asked many times for our members to step into these roles, but they remain open. When we start to have meetings in person again, I hope this will change.
6. State and National still demand the full per capita dues amounts.
7. The Grand Lodge Building in SF sale, which was voted by the membership more than 2 years ago, has still not happened, to my knowledge.
8. Many small Lodges are facing financial trouble.
9. Our Governor, for the 2nd year in a row, designated what has always been Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day. There are 1.7 million people who identify as Italian in California. It is not ok to keep insulting our heritage. He could have made it Italian Heritage Day, as many other cities have done. The Indigenous People deserve their own holiday, but it should not be at the expense of our day. Historically, Sons of Italy members were very active in making sure their voices were heard. 1.7 million, that’s a lot of voices.
10. Our longtime member, Josephine (Miniello) Potter, better known as “Jo”, passed away after a long illness in April. She was a member for 53 years, and our Recording Secretary for more than 30. She was in that position when I started.

Here is the good news:

1. I have signed up 3 new members in the first half of 2020, and in October I sent in membership applications for 5 more members, including my Grandson, Zachary, who just turned 2 on Halloween.
2. Even though we aren’t meeting, we are staying in touch through emails, texts and phone calls.
3. None of our members have had Covid 19, to my knowledge!
4. Our Youth Member, Luca Fanucchi, raised nearly $6,000.00 in a covid safe fundraiser he did by himself, to benefit our Scholarship Fund. With no other money coming in, this was an enormous blessing to us, and to the kids graduating this year and the next few years.
5. Longtime member, Leroy Scolari, who lives in Lompoc but has been a member of Colombo-Stella for 68 years, has been undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer for a couple of years, but is doing well, getting his numbers lower, and is always a pleasure to talk to on the phone.
6. We awarded a $1,500.00 scholarship in Jo Potter’s memory to Savanah Anderson, granddaughter of Ann Prandini Anderson.
7. We donated $2,000.00 to the Birth Defects Research Library at Valley Children’s Hospital in May, and along with the United Lodges collected a total of $10,000.00 for the hospital.
8. Even though the June “Surviving Through Thread” Fashion Show to benefit the American Cancer Society was cancelled, we voted to have them keep the sponsorship donation of $1,000.00 we made. The vintage shop that was putting on the show, Bebe- O’s, lost a lot of contributions that would have helped. Instead, they made the luminary bags and lit up Olive Ave in the Tower District in October. Our Lodge has many members with loved ones, and some members themselves, who have survived cancer, some are still fighting, and some us have lost members to this terrible disease. I asked our members if they had names they wanted to have memorialized on the luminary bags, and I submitted more names than I wanted to. It’s heartbreaking how many of us have been touched by cancer, and our Lodgewill always help fight this disease.
9. I have learned a lot of our early history in my research for the Italian Museum expansion. I will share more once I have it all in chronological order. It makes me very proud. One thing I will share is I was able to verify the link that Alfonso Cubicciotti did indeed come from th east to start Sons and Daughters of Italy (L’Ordine d’Figli in America) and helped our founding members start Cristoforo Colombo 1149 in 1922. He was made the Supreme Deputy of the East and one of the historical items we have is the vest he wore. It’s nearly 100 years old. I can’t wait to share everything else with you.
10. Our Lodge purchased a 7X7 plaque, inscribed with our name, year established and logo, to be placed along the Italian Wall at the Fresno Fair Museum. It will be there, forever. As will our Lodge history, and the history of Fresno County Italian American life, thanks to a grant from the Isnardi Foundation, a lot of donations, and a lot of hard work from many members of the Italian community, of which I am proud to have on the Committee. When we are to able to open the Museum to the public, and our expansion is complete, I will make sure you all know about it. That’s my report. 10 bad, 10 good. I’m sorry I can’t make it in person at our Christmas dinner, as I usually do. We are not having a Christmas gathering. As I write this, it seems there are spikes in the pandemic and I don’t want to risk the health of any of my members. We will also have had a Presidential election, though by the time you are reading this, it may still not be clear whether Biden or Trump is President. I hope no matter who wins, we all stay safe, the division in the country ends, and our Lodge can get back to normal soon. I miss you all very much. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and take a moment to remember everything we have to be grateful for.

Ciao for now.