Last
month we launched the first National Italian American Foundation
e-Newsletter and it was a huge hit. We received some great
feedback. The NIAF e-News staff truly appreciated the suggestions
and comments offered by our readers. Thank you! If you want
to sound off, please do. You can e-mail us at enews@niaf.org.
Much
of this e-Newsletter revolves around NIAF’s 31st Annual
Gala & Convention. Held last weekend, the event was wildly
successful and we start this issue with a quick glance at
some of the highlights from the 2006 NIAF Gala.
Father
and son turn gala presidential
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| President George W. Bush greets baseball legend Tommy Lasorda after addressing guests at the NIAF 'Salute to the Martini' |
President George W. Bush made a surprise appearance at the NIAF “Salute
to the Martini” featuring Frankie Valli and The Four
Seasons on Friday, October 20, continuing a three-decade tradition
of every U.S. president attending the Foundation’s gala
weekend, held this year from October 20-21 at the Hilton Washington
& Towers. Earlier that afternoon, former President George
H.W. Bush received the Foundation’s “One America”
award for his commitment to improving the lives of others
and gave the keynote address with his wife Barbara in attendance.
Jack Valenti, former president and CEO of the Motion Picture
Association of America, introduced the nation’s 41st
president, who spoke about the importance of partnerships
and how they improve the quality of lives and communities.
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Celebrities help celebrate almost $2 million in
scholarships at Youth Gala
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| NIAF
Special Achievement Award winner Raffaello Follieri and
actress Anne Hathaway |
This year NIAF awarded more than $1.7 million
in scholarships and cultural grants to students across the
U.S. and Italy. Recognizing the younger generation, NIAF organized
its 10th annual youth gala, which attracted more than 300
young Italian Americans from 20 states. While the youth gala
participants were finishing their dinner, actor Alan Alda,
youthful businessman Raffaello Follieri and his girlfriend,
actress Anne Hathaway, addressed the audience. Many attendees
commented that the Youth Gala helped NIAF’s younger
members participate in events that usually accommodate an
“older” audience, such as the “Italy’s
Thermal Waters” travel conference. “The younger
crowd felt less marginalized than they would have otherwise,
and were really excited to have participated in activities
geared towards their interests,” NIAF Education and
Culture Assistant, Giuseppina Spillane said.
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Distinguished panel deliberates
judicial independence in front of hundreds
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| NIAF
Legal Conference panelists (L to R): Supreme Court Justices
Antonin Scalia and Samual Alito, and the Honorable William
S. Sessions |
The weekend also featured a legal panel
covering the topic of “Judicial Independence,”
with Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito,
Jr. Other panelists included Judge Lynn Battaglia; former
FBI director, the Honorable William S. Sessions; and discussion
moderator, Judge Francis Allegra. The speakers offered the
roughly 400 quests a civics lesson on the role of the judiciary
and how being a judge has changed with the development of
global media. “The more your courts become policymakers,
the less sense it makes to have them be entirely independent,”
Scalia remarked. The discussion turned towards the public’s
perception of the judges and the decisions they make. Scalia
pointed his finger at the media, saying “the press is
never going to report judicial opinions accurately.”
Alito added, “This is not…somebody handing out
a leaflet…where a small number of people see it. [The
media] changes what it means to be a judge [and] certainly
changes the attractiveness of a judicial career.”
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New book illustrates origins of
Italians in northern California
“Italians
of the Bay Area: The Photographs of Gino Sbrana” (Arcadia,
$19.99, 127 pages), by Carlos Bowden, Jr., documents the life
of early Italian immigrants in the Golden State through the
photographs of Gino Sbrana. Born in Pisa, Italy in 1879, Sbrana
opened his first photography studio, Pisa Foto, in San Francisco
by 1911. According to the book, Sbrana later “founded
a studio in Oakland and, in 1919, settled in San Jose. Not
content to confine his artistry to the formally posed studio
portrait, he traveled over the Bay Area countryside with his
large wooden field camera, using soft light on the shady side
of barns or under large oaks to capture his fellow countrymen.”
“Italians of the Bay Area” is now available at
area bookstores, independent retailers and online bookstores.
(Source: www.ArcadiaPublishing.com)
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Upcoming
Events
 |
| Andrea Bocelli |
As
part of Andrea Bocelli's 2006 U.S. Tour, the National Italian
American Foundation will participate in his concert at New
York City’s Madison Square Garden on Thursday, November
30, 2006. As a special bonus, Andrea has agreed to join
us at a post-concert reception at Madison Square Garden
to benefit the NIAF Scholarship Fund.
For additional information and to reserve your seats, please visit our website.
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Inside
Italy
On October 23, Prime Minister
Romano Prodi hailed Italian athletes as the purveyors of the
country’s charisma and evenhandedness at a ceremony
honoring Italy’s finest sporting heroes in Rome. "I
see our sportspeople as the country's great messengers. They
are a sign of our vitality, charm and fairness in the sporting
arena," said Prodi. Among those being recognized by the
Italian Olympic Committee were members of the 2006 FIFA World
Cup Champion soccer team, Olympic and world cycling champion
Paolo Bettini, 2004 Olympic marathon gold medalist Stefano
Baldini, and the youngest and most recent world champion gymnast,
Vanessa Ferrari. The 15-year-old became the first Italian
to take gold at the women’s gymnastics world championships
by winning the all-round competition in Denmark last week.
(Source: www.LifeInItaly.com)
Information compiled and edited by
Jeff DiNunzio, e-Newsletter Coordinator
enews@niaf.org
For
the latest NIAF news and in-depth details of all the Foundation
offers, be sure to visit our Web site: www.niaf.org
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