Preserving Our Italian Heritage

Buongiorno a Tutti,

2023 is upon us and FOI is in full force. The Executive Board held a Strategic Planning Conference and calendared in projects and events for 2023.

We will have multiple events this year starting with a Royal High Tea “Italian Style” to be held at the Monterey Elks Lodge on Saturday April 22 and another Royal High Tea at the Pittsburg Elks Lodge on Sunday May 7, 2023. Tickets are available NOW.

We will hold a FOI Family Rosary on the first Monday of every month. “A family that prays together, stays together.” And FOI is a family. We hope you will join us.

Another FOI Old Fashion Picnic and Scholarship Awards Presentation, where we meet old and new cugini and we award thousands of dollars in scholarships to our members families. This event will be held on Saturday June 11, 2023 and again at the Waterfront Park- Bocce Park area.

Speaking of the FOI scholarships to date we have awarded $22,500 in scholarships. The requirements and online application are on this website. Pass the word. These scholarships are for college bound students as well as returning students, and for those students attending a trade and vocational school.

This year FOI will participate in the Pittsburg Italian Festa which is June 23, 24, 25. Come out and visit our booth and say Boungiorno. It’s going to be an exceptional great time.

The return of the fantastic dinner show, “That’s Italian, Two!” is slated for 2 events this year, one locally and the other in Monterey, dates and places to be determined. Big plans of which you will not want to miss. If you attended last year’s event at the Colombo Club where 200 plus attendees enjoyed great food, fantastic desserts, a live & silent auction with great items, and a wonderful professional entertaining entertainment.

We have shown the documentary “Potentially Dangerous” documentary in Pittsburg, Monterey, at several Rotary Clubs in the Bay Area, at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club all with great reception, with great reflection and remembrance.

We are planning an ancestorial faire to explore our ancestors, our heritage & culture. Dates to follow. We are exploring the Mormon Temple in Oakland to access their computers and learn how to navigate to find our relatives.

At the end of 2022 our membership totaled 177 members strong. At the time of this writing, we are in the process of sending out renewal notices. We hope you enjoyed what FOI has done in the past and you look forward to “things to come.” Please consider joining and renewing you FOI membership to help us keep the doors open and to promote our cultural heritage. Applications and to pay online, www.friendsofisola.org.

So, you can see your FOI board have been busy planning and expanding our cultural heritage as well as living up to our mission statement of “to preserve, protect, and promote our Italian-Sicilian cultural heritage….”

Stay tuned.

VIDEOS FROM PAST SHOWS