Happy Fall everyone!

NOTE; Our Open House date has been moved to Sunday, November 3!  This gives us more time to get ready.  We are getting there – our History room is almost all free of boxes!  There are still many boxes to go through.  Mark your calendars and come and see your new home!

I was able to attend the Clovis meeting at the end of August.  Had a great meal at Luna Pizzeria and met a few members of the lodge.  Unfortunately after dinner I was outside with our Youth Committee Chair Brian Watson having a few goodbye words with him and his kids. Avery was running and tripped headfirst into a brick pillar outside the restaurant and wound up getting 3 stitches.  But she is a tough kid and still went to school

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I didn’t find out until after the September IL Leone went to print last month that we lost one of our longest members in the United States of 80 years, Ms. Yolanda Rosterolla. To see her smile would light up the room. It was an honor and a privilege to have known her. We will all miss her. God Bless.

On September 13th, I drove to Redding

COLUMBUS DAY 2024

More than 500 years after he “discovered” the New World—kicking off centuries of exploration and colonization of the Americas—Christopher Columbus is honored with a federal holiday on the second Monday of every October. However, as historians have continued to dig into the life of Christopher Columbus, controversy has arisen over continuing to honor the Italian explorer as a hero.

Today his historic legacy as a daring explorer who discovered the New World has been challenged. The rewriting of the historical record of his voyages, that launched centuries of European

Birth Defects check presentation at Stanford, representing the Columbia Lodge #1940 and the Cornelia-Vita Nuova Lodge #1198.  Unfortunately, our Medical Charities/Birth Defects Library Chairperson Mary Lucido was unable to attend due to a work commitment, so I represented on her behalf.  Mary, you were missed.  This was a special event for us, as it marked the 50th Anniversary of the founding of our Birth Defects Library at Stanford, which was created on February 12, 1974 as the first Birth Defects Library in our Grand Lodge chain of libraries.

We were warmly greeted by Susan Schelley, MPH, LCGC, Senior Genetic Counselor and Dr. Jon Bernstein, MD, PhD, Chief, Division of Medical Genetics at Stanford Children’s Health.  Susan has been in the Genetics Department for over 40 years, and was hired by Dr. Luigi Luzzatti, who helped found the Pediatrics Birth Defect Center at Stanford.  I