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US Representative of Calabria, Italy (Consultore)

Presentations made as Representative (Consultore) for the Region of Calabria, Italv:

1. September 2005 Chevy Chase, Maryland

• Presented book, “A Camp Without Walls and Italy's Role During World War II" to the Italian Cultural Society of Washington, D.C. with Dr. Luigi De Luca as the Director.

2. April 13, 2006 Worcester, Massachusetts

• Presented "Italy's Role During World War II" as summarized in the book A Camp Without Walls to the Italian American Cultural Center members directed by Joan D'Argenis.

3. September 13, 2006 Casa Zerilli Marimo, New York City

• Presented "The Holocaust in Southern Europe" highlighting the Italian rescue of Jews as presented in the book A Camp Without Walls to the National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW) of which Dr. Aileen Sirey is the Founder and Chairwoman.

4. November 30, 2006 Columbus Citizen Foundation, New York City

• Presented "Italy's Role During World War II" through the book, A Camp Without Walls to the Legion of Merit chaired by Judge Dominic Massaro.

5. October 4, 2007 Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, Massachusetts

• Presented "The Holocaust in Southern Europe" with Julia Cerra and Pelonomi Khumoetsile-Taylor as Directors.

6. October 10, 2007 Newton Free Library, Newton, Massachusetts

• Presented A Camp Without Walls with Ellen Meyer as Coordinator.

7. November 8, 2007 Rhode Island Order Sons of Italy, North Providence, Rhode Island

• Presented "A Family's Plight from World War II to the present" with Edmund Restivo as Director.

• Presented, "A Camp Without Walls, A Daughter's Perspective." Jean White coordinated the event.

9. November, 2008 II Campo di Ferramonti e il Museo delia Memoria, Cosenza, Italy

Presented" Italy and the Holocaust: The Calabria Connection." The event was coordinated by Simona Celiberti, Assunta Orlando and Dr. Franco Panebianco.

10. November 10, 2008 University of Massachusetts, Boston

Presented “Italy and the Holocaust: the Calabria Connection” Dr. Maria Lombardo coordinated the event.

Events/Activities as Representative (Consultore) for Region of Calabria

May 26, 2007 Italia Unita’s Dinner Dance, Spinelli’s East Boston, Massachusetts

July 2, 2007 Evaluator of the 2007 $10,000 Frieda J. Riley Teachers’ Award for the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation.

August 11-15, 2007 Feast of San Francesco Di Paola, Chicago, Illinois

October 6, 2007 Casino Night, Italian Benevolent Society Newton, Massachusetts

October 20, 2007 Italian Night, Italo American Educational Club Wellesley, Massachusetts

Peter Renato
Montepaone, Calabria
(click for larger image)

October 27 – November 6, 2007 as U.S. Representative attended the Consulta for the Region of Calabria in Montepaone, Calabria

November 1 through November 6, 2008 attended the Consulta for the Region of Calabria in Cosenza, Italy and visited the Ferramonti Concentration Camp

October 3, 2008 Columbus Day Dinner Dance

October 5, 2008 Annual Columbus Day Mass

October 5, 2008 Boston Bel Canto Opera

October 7, 2008 Italia Unita Exhibit of Calabria

October 11, 2008 North End Walking Tour

October 11, 2008 Anniversary Dinner Dance Celebration

October 12, 2008 Columbus Day Parade

October 14, 2008 Pirandello Lyceum Scholarship Dinner

October 15, 2008 The Anniversary of the Italian Republic

October 19, 2008 “Respiro della Terra” at Filippo Restaurant

October 20, 2008 Festival of Italian Regional Music Dinner Dance

October 26, 2008 St. Michael the Archangel Award Breakfast

October 26, 2008 A Taste of Italy in Burlington

October 30, 2008 “Respiro della Terra” Italian Festival

Meetings as U.S. Representative (Consultore) for the Region of Calabria

January-March 2006- organized Italian American organizations including the Dante Alighieri Society, Order Sons of Italy, Pirandello Society, UNICO, Knights of Columbus, Italian Benevolent Society, Italian American Educational Club of Wellesley, FIERI, and Italian American War Veterans in the Boston area to be able to gather votes to elect Senator Renato Turano

March 5, 2006- organized a group that included Renato Turano and Pompeo Imperatura to attend a play titled "Seven Rabbits on a Pole," which epitomized the difficulties of immigrants coming to America. There were over 10 Italian American organizations represented at the event.

August 28, 2006- organized a meeting with Dominic Candelieri Director of the Calabrese Feast Inc., Steve Maio of the Order Sons of Italy, Lisa Capogreco of Italia Unita, Ida Arcorace, director of a travel agency to solicit the needs of the community and in addition, we discussed the activities of the various groups and what can be realized in the future by working together.

October 27,2006- organized a meeting with Dominic Candelieri, Steve Maio, Lisa Capogreco, and Ida Arcorace. We discussed the Marisa Bellisario International Award for the recognition of women entrepreneurs; ways to prepare a feast for San Francesco di Paola; and the means to organize a conference at the University of Massachusetts, Boston inviting the Rabbi Barbara Aiello, the first woman rabbi in Italy, who is presently building a synagogue in Calabria named the Guiding Light of the South to be located in La Mezia. We thought about inviting Director Brenner of the Ferramonti Foundation located in FerramontiTarzia, Calabria. Maria Lombardo will present her book, A Camp Without Walls that deals with the subject of the role of Italy during the Second World War and the experience of her father in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia. Any profits from the sale of the books would be distributed for scholarships. We also discussed organizing a trip to Calabria.

November 27,2006- organized an evening at the Circolo Cultura Viva Calabrese in collaboration with Giuseppe Panetta and Giulia Serra for a demonstration of the authentic work done utilizing the loom by Francesca Filippa, an entrepreneur who lives in Calabria and started her own business and website.

December 3, 2006- organized a meeting with Carlo Cipollone, Director of the Education Sector of the Italian Consulate in Boston, Giuseppe Panetta Director of the Circolo Cultura Viva Calabrese; Elia Sila and Marisa Trizzi of the Calabrese Association of Massachusetts and Ida Arcorace. Maria Lombardo explained that the proposal she wrote along with Dr. Mary Cazabon of Cambridge Public Schools and Dr. Donaldo Macedo of the Applied Linguistics Department, UMASS, Boston was accepted by the American government financing and providing $900,000 for a program to teach Mandarin with students in the Cambridge Public Schools. Lombardo as the Project Coordinator organizes the program from the University of Massachusetts. Lombardo also presented the proposal she wrote for the schools in Burlington that received $725,000 for teaching Italian and creating an exchange of teachers with Italy. Cipollone asked Lombardo to write a proposal for Harvard University to adjourn teachers of Italian in the Boston area.

January 18, 2007- conducted a meeting at Harvard University with Prof. Elvira DiFabio, Lisa Boes, Carlo Cipollone, Maryann Mac Donald, Sal Trapani, Claudia Zamboni of the Cambridge Public Schools to discuss a proposal that would be written by Lombardo as had been discussed during the December 3rd meeting to organize teacher cultural exchanges between the US and Calabria.

March, 2008- met with Pompeo Imperatura for the re-election of Senatore Renato Turano.