This has certainly been a year to remember or maybe better yet a year to forget. I’d like to quote the Italian saying “Arenda Tutti Bene”-soon all will be well.

Your 2020 Little Italy Lodge Scholarship Foundation is proud to report that we awarded 4 Scholarships to 4 incredible young women totally $24,000.00. We published the 4 winning newsletters in La Notizia and featured the winners in our 2020 Taste of Italy memorial program book.

Please visit our web site LittleItalyfoundation.org and learn about what we do and who we are. We have expanded the Foundations Board from 10 members to 16 members. We want to express our most sincere appreciation to two awesome members who have resigned from the Board this year-Emeritus Jerry Elliott and Emerita Mary Apicella. Jerry and Mary are giants of Little Italy who have served all of us with compassion and dedication for many years and now are deserving of a rest with our thanks and recognition of a job well done. Mille grazie!

The Board: We are honored and appreciative that Vince Piscopo, long time Little Italy supporter and former chair of The Columbus Parade, agreed to assume the Board’s Chair, fulfilling the role of our wonderful prior Chair, Gio Alberotanza. Our new officers of the Board are Nancy Barbieri Wolfe as Secretary and Anna Vitale Lybrand as Treasurer. Welcome to additional new members: Dr. Marc A DiSimone, Sue Corasaniti, Dr. Albert Marra, and Rosalie Ranieri.

The At Large Committee: What a remarkable hand-off and blessing that Tim Elliott, Jerry and Angie’s successful son, has agreed to join the Lodge AND our Committee as Taste of Italy Treasurer. Kudos too to Anthony Montcalmo who now serves as Chair of The Scholarship Selection Committee. Finally, major props to Maureen Chandler, Chair of our Taste of Italy fun fun fundraiser, who coordinated and brought to press our 2020 Taste of Italy Program book. We are so anxious to plan for 2021 Taste of Italy celebration with new twists and hopes for another sellout!

Major Donors to our Foundation: I want to conclude our end of year summary with a major public thank you to a most generous donor and a long time St. Leo pillar:
In 2018 and 2019, our Foundation was able to offer 4 scholarships per year (2@ $4,000 and 2@ $2,000) totaling $12,000.00 per year. As a result of 2 major donations in 2020, our Foundation was able to double each scholarship, totaling $24,000.00. Long time Little Italy Icon and philanthropist, Mr. Carl Julio, wrote a $10,000.00 check in March of 2020 for our scholarship program. Mr. Julio who recently turned 90 has spent a life time giving back to community and our Foundation. We are a lucky recipient of Carl’s incredible largesse. Cen Deci Carl…110 years! In addition, the Confraternity of Saint Gabriel, presided over by Dominic Pompa, son of Saint like Lucy Pompa, also donated $10,000.00 to our Foundation for our 2020 Scholarship Program. What a blessing to have these major donations that permitted our Foundation to double our outlay of scholarship dollars in 2020. We pray for continued generosity from all of our supporters and donors to sustain our unique 21 year history of scholarships. Ciao!

Respectfully submitted,
Paul R. Rao PhD, Foundation President
Paul.r.rao@gmail.com