Message From Your Vice President, Northern Dist.
Mark Rossi
A big shout out to the Vallejo Lodge Members and Sacramento Lodge Members who came and supported the Northern Solano Lodge Crab Feed on January 24. This was the largest attendance since COVID. Special thanks to all the Northern Solano Lodge members who worked to make the event memorable for all who attended and financially successful for the Lodge.
In early February, I had lunch at the famous Granzella Restaurant & Deli, in Williams, with Tony George and Michael Colletti Smith, the President and Vice President of the Vincenzo Bellini Lodge in Chico that closed at the end of 2025. We shared many stories about our Italian Heritage and how we got involved with the Sons & Daughters of Italy. Tony served as the Lodge President for three years and Michael served as the Lodge President for 14 years. Michael also worked with Past State President Roy Vanoni on the Northern California Golf Classic and then took the event over for many years, after Roy had relocated to Roseville. I am sure all of you remember the famous frozen meatball putting contest.
As I mentioned before, Lodge closings are painful, they are painful for the members that lose their friends and the community of the Lodge; painful for the community that losses a fraternal service organization; and painful for all of us who lose longtime friends and members. Michael and Tony and all the Vincenzo Bellini Lodge members will continue to be part of our Order Sons & Daughters of Italy family. We are a large family drawn together by our Italian heritage, and the love for Italy, the motherland of our ancestors. Tony and Michael, I will see you in May at the Sacramento Lodge’s Bocce Tournament.
We continue to hold a monthly Presidents’ Zoom meeting on the fourth Thursday of each month at 6:00 p.m. Thank you to the Lodge Presidents that attend on a regular basis. We have ten to twelve Lodge Presidents who attend regularly and we would love have other Lodge Presidents join as well. If you are challenged by Zoom, we can meet a few days before the scheduled meeting and work through any technical issues ahead of time. Special thanks to Napa Lodge President Marisa Miller, who shared some of their strategies for growing membership during the January Zoom Meeting.
Thanks to our Grand Lodge Office Manager, Alison Williams, the Grand Lodge Instagram and Facebook pages are updated weekly with new content. We also use these pages to share information about your local Lodge activities. If you aren’t already, please like and follow the Grand Lodge social media pages and in turn the Grand Lodge will follow your pages. The Grand Lodge is still looking for some volunteer help to create relevant content for the social media pages. If you are interested in helping with content or have some ideas for content, please reach out to us at sonsofitalyca@aol.com.
The Grand Lodge will be holding the first Grand Council Meeting of 2026 at the Centinela Valley Lodge Hall in Torrance, CA on Saturday, March 21st. The meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. The meetings are open to all members, so if you are in the area please stop by. On Sunday following Grand Council the Scholarship Committee will be meeting to review scholarship applications and make scholarship selections.
Wishing everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!