Solon Italian Club: The Start of Something Great in Our Lives

Many years ago I encouraged my husband, Dennis, to join the Solon Italian Club. Since I have such a "Heinz 57" heritage and he was all Italian/Sicilian, I wanted our family to have strong ties to the Italian side. Originally, we had fun just because cousin Steve Piunno was involved and then it developed into much stronger ties to the club.

It's been years.....10 to be exact.....since we became a part of that circle of friends. We had a child together and named him Giovanni. This kid loved being Italian from day one. One day while talking about family to his grandmother he commented that he was 100% Italian. Gramma reminded him that his mother was Polish, German, Welsh, American Indian; to name a few. His response was, "I don't care what she is, but I'm 100% Italian". He has since learned to appreciate all aspects of his background, especially when I make homemade pierogies!!

Michael, our eldest child, took Italian at John Carroll. I attempted to learn Italian there as well, but did not fare as well as Michael did. Dennis managed a few sessions thanks to hearing it spoken when he was young. We would encourage Gio to learn Italian words and he took to it with no problem. Dennis belongs to The Northern Ohio Italian American Foundation or N.O.I.A.  (http://www.noiafoundation.com/mainpage.html) They offered Italian lessons to their members. We signed Gio up for the children's classes and made a weekly Italian night finishing off with dinner and most often gelato after class.

Gio enjoyed the lessons and since we had a trip to Italy coming up we had him continue to study with a wonderful family friend. Masina Santangelo would have Gio at her very Italian home to cook, bake, watch Italian television and listen to Italian conversations between Masina and her husband Joe. Guiseppi is a wonderful guy who speaks broken English and who Gio calls Papa Joe. What a great experience! Gio learned Italian in such a practical, everyday way. He was only 6 and I believe that since he has such a love of music, that it was even easier for him to learn the language.

A good friend of ours, Peter D'Attoma runs a very well regarded Italian travel business. (www.davincicustomtravel.com) He plans a two week trip to Italy for the Solon Italian Club. We were the first to sign up for the tour. We didn't think twice about taking Gio. Turns out that among the 40 people on the trip.....he was the only child. Honestly, he was great and better behaved than a number of the other travelers. And, to see Italy through his eyes made the trip worth everything. His favorite stops were the Vatican and the Colesium. We hope to take him back again in the near future.

We have since been honored to become a part of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums thanks to our amazing friend, Lorraine Dodero. (http://www.vaticanpatronsohio.org/) Lorraine is the passionate Chapter Chairwoman for Ohio. I would encourage anyone with a love for the fine art of the Vatican to seriously consider becoming a Patron.

Back to the Solon Italian Club.......since we have very little family here, Gio has "adopted" the guys in the club as his family. He now has so many "uncles"!! He loves the guys and they are so nice to him. I believe they help to fill a void for him since he has so few relatives. I have to say that I really love these guys. They are just solid, kind, dependable, caring men. They might not was to hear those adjectives used to describe them, but it's true. They have become a big part of our life.

The Italian Club is not just a social club. These guys work hard to raise money for scholarships and so much more......stay tuned to hear more about them.