Vincenzo Bellini Lodge #2519

It has been some time since the Vincenzo Bellini lodge sent in an article.

We wanted to let everyone know we are still here and as active as possible during these crazy times.

It is with sadness in our lodges heart that we lost two founding members of our lodge and one member in this past few months.

Cathy Lucido and Stela Ricci founding members, and Richard Noerenberg long time member.

We had put together a picnic at Merlo Park in Sterling City with over 20 members all with face masks playing Bocce and socializing. Got together at Italian cottage in Chico for a lunch last month with 25 members all spaced apart outside and had a special prepared early Sunday dinner prepared by our members Brian and Robyn Katz. Some members played miniature golf at night with neon golf balls and had a fun time and we are planning to have another dine out at a local winery.

As I noted that lots of lodges in the United States were reaching out to help people during this pandemic, I just could not help thinking what our organization stood for, so we started reaching out to help.

During these last few months, we gave out two $1000.00 high school scholarships. $1,000.00 to Association for Retarded Children( ARC), to help renovate the playground for special needs children. $1,000.00 from our lodge and another $1000.00 from a member to the North Valley disaster group to help rescue animals from the forest fires in California. We will be giving another $1,000.00 to the North Valley Catholic Social Services in December which is our annual donation to help buy food for needy families in our area for Christmas.

We did this without our major Fund raisers, Spaghetti Dinner and golf Classic. We truly hope our Golf Classic will be back again next October along with the three years planning of our first Italian festival in Chico.

Stay healthy and well and from all of us at Vincenzo Bellini Lodge, have a happy Thanks Giving and a safe and Happy Christmas.