WATERBURY CHAPTER OF UNICO NATIONAL June 2014 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER Waterbury UNICO PO Box 933—Waterbury, CT 06721 www.WaterburyUNICO.com www.Facebook.com/WaterburyUNICO
WaterburyUNICO@yahoo.com
Note From President My Fellow UNICANS, As my presidency winded down, our chapter kept me on my toes with a variety of events that we should all be very proud of. I would like to thank Fran Durante and her volunteers for doing such a great job cleaning up Veterans Memorial Park for Earth Day/ National’s Community Day of Service. All our hard work resulted in 26 bags of trash and the appreciation of Mr. Bob Dorr, head of the Veterans Committee. Mr. Dorr showed us all how to load a Howitzer with a brass shell and gave us the history of this park which is privately owned by the cemetery foundation. Kudos to all the volunteers on a job well done. Our chapter also helped out the Veterans Committee by writing a letter to the Library Waterbury Hall of Fame Committee, at their request, to support their nomination of John Martino for the Waterbury Hall of Fame. A WW II unsung hero, John Martino, was the chief torpedo man for the famous PT-34 and he saved General McArthur and his family from Corregidor in the Pacific. He also prevented a live bomb on board from exploding and killing all onboard. He also survived the terrible Bataan death march and 40 months as a Japanese prisoner of war. In recognition of his bravery, courage and performance under fire, John was awarded the Prisoner of War medal and two Navy Silver Stars. I hope our support helps him attain this wall of honor. I would also like to thank Frank Travisano and Lou Gelada for all their hard work for over a year to make a great Italian Heritage Presence at Waterbury’s “The Gathering”. I was so moved to see the bright, beautiful, new flags representing the 21 regions of Italy proudly carried by descendants of our immigrants that came to these American shores. We are grateful to Joe DiSantis for driving his beautiful 1954 Northeast Bus (Honeymooners Bus) for members who could not walk the parade route. I thank all our members that helped all day with the pizza/water booth and the Italian Information Booth. It was great to see over 17 countries represented at this year’s Gathering. We were very successful on our Naugatuck Chamber of Commerce Duck Day Race ticket sales. Thank you to all the members who sold tickets. Thank you to Bob Rinaldi who painstakingly counted every dollar and duck that came in. This will definitely help our general fund. I would like to thank Bob Gerace and his Committee for all their work in coordinating this year’s Scholarship Dinner. I thank them for distributing the applications to all the High Schools, reading all the essays, picking the winners into the wee hours of the night, decorating the hall, and running the Dinner. I would also like to thank our speaker at this event, Marissa Famiglietti, for taking the time from her busy schedule to share all her talents with these bright students. I would also like to thank Francine Nido for all her work in creating the Scholarship Dinner Pamphlets, Golf Tournament Pamphlets, and especially the monthly newsletters. She has been doing the newsletter for many years and doing it very well. She is asking someone to take this job over for next year. I hope someone will volunteer for this very important job. Congratulations to the new slate of officers and delegates that were voted in at the Scholarship Dinner. Thank you for volunteering your services and following our motto of “Service Above Self”. I encourage all new members to volunteer to be in all the different committees. I am sure your new President, Frank Travisano, would love to appoint you to his committees so don’t be shy. WE NEED YOU! Join me in thanking our Treasurer, Joan Pesce-Veneziano, for her 16 years of dedicated service. She was the first Woman Treasurer of the Waterbury Chapter and has served under many chapter presidents. Much of her work goes unnoticed since it is often done behind the scenes. Whether making deposits to the bank, collecting money at all fundraisers, compiling information for the accountant for the filing of the chapter’s 990, writing checks to reimburse officers, preparing treasurer’s reports for all board meetings or helping compile the year’s budget, the Treasurer is a very time consuming job. The Chapter and I would like to honor Joan Pesce Veneziano for her hard work at our next meeting. Please come and tell her how thankful you are for her 16 years. Lastly, as I leave my term as President, I would like to thank my Officers, my Board of Directors, and my Committee Chairs for all their hard work. We can be proud of the many events we held over the last 2 years especially the 90th Birthday Bash for Unico National, the NYC Bus Trip and the Italian Heritage Night which resulted in many new members. Thank you all for making me look so good! Yours in Unico, Joanne D’Angelo, President