Message From the 3rd Vice President

 To My Sisters & Brothers of OSDIA

It’s June so that means it’s Convention time and this year it’s in my hometown of Reno, NV. The Convention Committee has been busy planning activities. First off, we will have Bocce on Wednesday afternoon. This is always a great time for meeting new members and catching up with old friends as well as finding out what has happened since last year. A Slot Tournament is planned on Wednesday evening and on Thursday evening, after opening our Convention, there is a Western Theme Night event. So please, if you are in Reno, come and enjoy the Party!

May was very busy as we traveled to some of the Lodges in the North. To be exact, it started out in the beautiful Wine Country of St Helena where Lodge #2079 celebrated their 65th Anniversary. We felt honored to meet some of the prominent Winemakers in the Napa Region like the Nichelini Family and William Harrison Vineyards & Winery. What great stories they told us about the Wineries. President Kevin and the entire membership put on a superb dinner.

It was then off to Reno for The Festa Primavera at the Elks Lodge which was put on by The Cristoforo Colombo Lodge #1534. It seemed like there were more people there than the entire population of Reno when I used to live there…. just kidding. It was a packed house with raffle prizes galore. As luck would have it, I did not win anything, oh well, that’s the chance you take when you go to Reno. Dawn Romero, their newly elected President and the cast of workers did an awesome job! I am looking forward to next year’s dinner.

Next stop for us was Chico at the Vincenzo Bellini Lodge #2519, I just love saying “Vincenzo Bellini”! The Lodge was celebrating their 41st Anniversary. Londi and I had a great time and enjoyed one of my favorite dishes of Chicken Alfredo. I couldn’t wait for the raffle drawings, but like in Reno, I won nothing, “zero”. Thank you, Tony George and all the members for a wonderful dinner!

Last, but not least, we attended a Scholarship Dinner at the Gold Country Lodge #2705. Four outstanding and deserving students from the local high schools were recipients. Gold Country Lodge started giving out Scholarships to the Italian speaking classes over 20 years ago. What a great tradition to encourage these students. Our hats off to Butch and Jenny Arietta for their continued support of this program! These students really enjoyed learning the Italian Language. It was such a pleasure to watch young people appreciate their heritage. By the way, the Raviolis were out of this world!

We finally headed back down to Sacramento Lodge #1352 for their Annual International Bocce Tournament held at East Portal Park in Sacramento. We had a lot of people there whose families came from Italy, so I think that qualifies us to be “International”. Anyway, what a fun day everyone had playing Bocce with 12 teams ready to experience the four F’s (Fun, Food, Family and Friends). There were tons of raffle prizes and no, I didn’t win any. The top three teams all won medals. I want to thank everyone who participated in this event, particularly those who traveled long distances from other Lodges to support us. After the Tournament, everyone went home full of food and armed with prizes after a day filled with friendships. Great job to Dan Marinelli and everyone that worked hard to make their “International” Bocce Tournament a grand success!

Now the plans are that I will be off to Reno again for the Grand Convention. I hope to see and meet many of our Delegates and Members. I encourage our members to come to Reno and participate in the convention. We will have seating in the rear area of the room so anyone can sit and watch the proceedings. What a great opportunity for you all to learn more about our organization!