Northern Solano Lodge #2534

Into each life a little rain must fall, and in 2020 I think we had a torrential downpour. This year started out as every year, filled with plans and activities for our lodge, such as our Annual Crab Feed (which we were able to do), our Scholarship Dinner, Convention, the Annual Gene Bruno Picnic and so many other projects, but then Covid 19 hit our world with a vengeance and the world came to a screeching halt. It has truly been the year that was bringing on new challenges for not only our lodge, but for all the lodges. We have had to come up with some creative ideas for our activities, a new way of having board meetings, some activities had to be postponed while others had to be temporarily dropped for the time being. So, with that being said, I will attempt to sum up 2020 to the best of my ability.

January started off as usual with our annual Crab Feed, held at the Fairfield Senior Center. We had 250 guests in attendance where we served 48 pounds of pasta, 20 gallons of sauce, bread, salad and 800 pounds of our guest of honor The CRAB. Beautiful gift baskets, good food, good company, I’d say a good time was had by all. In

February we welcomed new members Lauretta Graham, Marguerite Boyd and Charlene Ping into our lodge. We also had a wedding on February 1, our own Joy Bruno and Rod Neubert were joined together in holy matrimony. Congratulation to Joy & Rod.

March came in like a lion and everything came to a complete halt. Covid hit and the world changed as we knew it. We had to adapt to new normals, like all the other lodges, our plans for the upcoming year all changed. We had to come up with some new and creative ideas to keep our lodge active, and safe from this strange new virus. There was so much that needed to be planned and done, that is was overwhelming. But our lodge (like so many other lodges) have been able to make the best of this weird year.

So many planned activities had to be cancelled, such as the Dixon May Fair, where we work the Beer Booth, and A Day at the Races where we go spend a day at Golden Gate Fields. We were able to make a donation to Meals on Wheels and the Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano Counties to try to help out our community during these trying times. The Grand Lodge had to cancel our Convention that was scheduled for June, and all future activities planned for the Senior Center were also cancelled.

We were able to pick our recipients for the yearly scholarships our lodge hands out. The following students were awarded with these scholarships:

Austin Peterson, Rodriguez High, received the Tom Tortorete Memorial Scholarship

Madison Metcho, Rodriguez High, received the Rose Simon Memorial Scholarship

Robert Wright, Rodriguez High, receive the Fred Barnes Memorial Scholarship

Tyus Green, Vanden High, received the Marie Ragusa Memorial Scholarship

Isabella Kunde, Vacaville High, received the Al Galli Memorial Scholarship

Jessica Barker, Early College High, received the Northern Solano Lodge Scholarship.

Sadly, we also had to say goodbye to some long time members: Marie Ragusa, Fred Barnes, Laurel Holmboe, Carol Jones. Rick Tracy, Joe Della Zoppa and Guido Colla. They will truly be missed.

Well, that’s just the first half of the year, way too much going on in 2020 to put into one article, so stay tuned for part 2 in the next article of the Il Leone.

I will leave you with this, I wish each and every person a Merry Christmas and a joyous 2021.