CRISTOFORO COLOMBO LODGE #1534

Buona Primavera from Cristoforo Columbo Lodge #1534 in Reno, Nevada.   We hope your spring and summer are enjoyable.

January we installed our new officers but our Vice President position remains open.  We continue to search for someone wanting to hold that position and eventually move into the President’s position.  Our long-time chef, Antonio Ricci, will no longer be cooking for us each month.  In January Hugh Ricci and Chris Cifelli made their special meatballs and we had a contest. It was fun and the meatballs were awesome! We will likely do something like this again.

February was another fun Bingo dinner with a consent agenda and no formal meeting. Silvana Ricci, Dean Obenauer, and Ali Frorio were the three Bingo winners taking home $120 each.  Our first dinner with our new chefs was mushroom raviolis, Caesar salad and garlic bread.  It was delicious and we think we will be very happy with the new chefs.  We did, however, have to raise our price by $5 but everyone understands.

March we initiated several new members: David Del Col, Bart Pestriano, Kevin and Rebecca Benedetto, Richard Solferino, Ann Weiss, Cheryl Brassea-Biggs, and Jack Biggs. We are happy our membership continues to grow.  More and more members are buying the shirts and vests, online, which were specially designed for our Lodge, they look great and so good to see members wanting to represent the Order.

April we had a guest speaker from the Assistance League of Reno/Sparks.  We learned a lot about this wonderful organization and their amazing thrift shop.  They help many, many people in need get back on their feet.  One of our members, Jim DeMartini, coordinated a contest for an Italian business to win the Italian Business of the Year Award.  This year Casele’s Halfway Club Italian Restaurant is the winner.  Their restaurant has been in the same location since 1937. They will be honored in May at our dinner meeting on the 28th of the month.

May was our big fundraiser, Festa Primavera, at the Elks.  It was another huge success and we raised another very large sum of money for our scholarships and charities. So many members and others came forward to help make this such a wonderful event.  Everyone worked very hard and organized and coordinated everything.  It is and was a very, very fun evening with delicious food and amazing raffle and silent auction prizes.  We want to give a special thank you for Vice President of the North, Louis Lodi and his wife Londy for attending and spreading so much joy. Also, we are always happy to have our Immediate Past State President Barbara Wisniewski and her husband Ken be part of the event. We look forward to this every year and it is always sold out.  Next year we hope to add an additional table to bring it up to about 340 people.  There was actually a waiting list this year as so many people wanted to attend.

We continue our Share the Wealth Board at each of our meetings.  We have between 65 and 70 people attend our dinner meetings so we have two winners.  The lodge receives half and each winner receives a quarter which is usually around $70 plus each.  Margaret Spano continues to coordinate the monthly Amici Lunch Bunch which is very well attended.

Thank you for reading about our Lodge and in bocca al lupo. The literal meaning is “in the mouth of the wolf”.  This phrase is used to wish someone good luck!

Please visit our Face book page at Reno Sons of Italy and our website for more information: www.renosonsofitaly.org.  Learn more about our Lodge, your Italian heritage and upcoming events.