OSIA Comunita Update
By David Covucci
In a recent issue of The Sons of Italy News, State President James DiStefano introduced the Grand Lodge’s newest initiative: OSIA Comunita. This project is being formed as a sister organization of the Grand Lodge with the goal of finding ways for Italian Americans to help each other. This is an ambitious undertaking that will introduce new ways for us to interact with each other, and will help us attract new members - especially a younger generation of Italian Americans. In order to test this new organization and make improvements before we introduce it to all lodges, we are implementing a test run in the two lodges in Watertown.
The first step of this test project occurred on November 2, 2011 when State Officers as well as officers and members of the Watertown lodges attended a brainstorming session to fi gure out how to implement OSIA Comunita. Representing the State Council were State Trustee Stephen DeAngelis, State Second Vice President Antonio Sestito, State Recording Secretary Ron Hill, and State President James DiStefano. Piave Fiume Lodge #1036 President Tony Mastantuono and Cornelia dei Gracchi Lodge #1583 President Gerry Cimino represented their respective lodges. Also in attendance were Francesco DeSanctis Lodge #1411 President Chris Piccioli, and Watertown lodge members Mel Martocchia, Lou DiMuzio, Irene Santoro, and Teresa Iodice, who were the key audience members who we were hoping to gain feedback from on how to implement our ideas in Watertown.
