Message From the 3rd Vice President

To My Sisters & Brothers of OSDIA,

First, I would like to apologize because I did not have my monthly article in the Il Leone last month. Covid finally found me in December. I was lucky that I did not catch it in the beginning of the month, because I wanted to help move the Grand Lodge to Sacramento. Speaking of that, we were able to locate a temporary office space plus a large storage building in the Sacramento area, so now we are just looking for a great place to permanently base our Grand Lodge.

On January 19th, I went to the Roseville Lodge #1413 to install their newly elected officers. Congratulations to Tom Tommasi and his fellow officers. I know they will keep one of the oldest Lodges in Northern California growing and spread the word about OSDIA. We had a wonderful Pot Luck dinner while I showed an informative DVD about what OSDIA has done with The Sons and Daughters of Italy Foundation. The video is called “The Order Sons of Italy Triumphant Journey”. After seeing the DVD, I spent almost an hour answering questions from the members. They became more understanding and were excited about what we are doing through OSDIA nationwide.

On January 28th, I traveled down to Fairfield Lodge for their Annual Crab Feed. Everyone had a great time. The crab was flying all over the room, the raffle prizes were awesome, and everyone loved my World Famous Cannolis.

I hope everyone is taking time to go on YouTube and watch The OSDIA Channel. You can see everything that is happening with OSDIA Lodges all over the country.

Many members have asked about the Grand Lodge relocation. We’ve had a number of Zoom calls about new locations but none have been adequate for the specifications that we have set so that our new Grand Lodge will meet our needs for the future. Our State President Barbara Wisniewski has been notifying all the Lodge Presidents through Zoom calls about what is happening, but only a few Presidents have joined in them. The information that she gives out is so that the local Presidents can communicate this information to all the members. If they don’t join Zoom calls they cannot pass on all the information to their Lodge members so the members don’t fully know what is happening. The communication breaks down then the members are not fully informed. Dan Marinelli has done a fantastic job of checking every week if any new properties come on the market. He then contacts President Barb and Mary Jane Cambria, who reviews if they meet our criteria. So be patient in knowing that we have the good of the order as our priority.

I hope and pray that 2023 will bring to all our members good health and happiness. Please give a friend or relative that you haven’t talked to in awhile a phone call and just say “Hello, I was thinking about you.”

Ciao for now,

Louie Lodi