Saddleback Valley Lodge #2566

Survival…
Like many Sons and Daughters of Italy lodges, Saddleback is struggling to retain and even gain members. To that end, we have been successful, and I thought I would give my opinions on why we are doing well. First of all, it is leadership. Our president and his council have been very effective in maintaining morale and loyalty through the pre-pandemic and pandemic period. Hank, especially, has encouraged ideas and has kept virtually all members of the lodge active by delegating the responsibility for activities, meeting programs and meals, and responding positively to member’s ideas. Secondly, we strive for monthly activities. There is so much to see and do around Orange County and beyond that our activities abound. We have done wine tasting, museum trips, outdoor picnics, outdoor movies, and train trips for example at affordable prices. As a result, we have a very cohesive group.

It is our plan to give the Grand Lodge more exposure to Saddleback and thus show the prospective new members the benefits of having the state and national presence. To this end we have invited The Grand Lodge president to do some marketing at our meetings in an effort get new members interested in our Lodge.

We are proud of our group and strive to keep it healthy and grow with no internal strife.

At our July meeting, we had a bocce ball tournament, organized by Tess Arieta and Erta Matson. This was followed by a Scholarship presentation to Jessica Morris, granddaughter of Joe Rossi (RIP) and great niece of members Al and Lillian Rossi. Below, our President is presenting the scholarship to Jessica who will be attending San Diego State in the fall. There is also a picture showing Jessica with our first Lady Michelle. They both went to the same high school, just a few years apart! We then initiated four new Saddleback Lodge SDOIA members, Maureen Di Domenico, Fran and John Adranga, and Donald Passaglia who are also shown in the picture below. After the ceremonies, we had sandwich night along with supplemental goodies brought by members. Our leftovers were donatedto the US marines by both Kerry and Tim Herington.Our June meeting was a barbecue at Hank and Michelle’s house. We had Hotties Hambies as well as a myriad of nummys brought by members. The 36 attendees all had a great time! Thanks to our Pres and Mrs. Pres.

Activities: we are all looking forward to our Angels game outing, wine tasting at San Antonio winery and perhaps a train ride for an afternoon at Del Mar.

It’s great to be back to some sort of normality with regular meetings and good participation.