Felice Anno Nuovo!

Happy New Year to our CIAO Famiglia!

Debbie Perrine Converse's "Memories of a traditional Italian Christmas"

(Click on title to see the article)

Thank you to all who came out to our CIAO Family Christmas party! Von McMichael and Ann Bonito really put a lot of time and effort into providing us with a wonderful afternoon, thank you, ladies! 

Click on our "Event Photos" tab to see more!

If you didn't make it to the November meeting, here's what you missed!

We're a little late getting to this, but thank you to all who came out to our November general membership meeting at Milanos Monday evening. It was a disappointingly low number turnout, but certainly understandable for a holiday week and the bitterly cold weather. The food, once again was excellent! Betsy Winget, Executive Director of the Senior Center Services gave us so much great information about what the Center has to offer. Today's "seniors" are younger than ever, and if you're 50 yrs or older, there is something there for you. Several CIAO members are enjoying their services. http://seniorcitizens.ws/ Thank you, Betsy!

The CIAO Family Christmas Party planners have been very busy making sure this will be a great event for all members and their children and grandchildren. The party will be this coming Sunday, December 1!!! 11am-3pm at the Old Barn Out Back in the banquet room. Cost is $12 for adults and CIAO is paying for all children 12 years and younger. If you have not yet made your reservation, please call Von McMichael 419-647-4766 or Ann Bonito at 419-302-8900 asap so they can make sure Santa has enough gifts for all of the children. Please join us!

In other business, we have TWO openings on our Board of Directors. If you would be interested in joining the Board, please contact any officer or Board member or send a private message here or to our Facebook page. The term would be for one year until our next election when all of our board members will be up for re-election. Please consider stepping up; our organization's continued success and growth depends upon different opinions and perspectives. We are a diverse group of people, men and women, wide ranges of age, education and careers. No experience necessary! 

Ladies!!!! Next Thursday, December 5, 6pm at Tamarac golf course restaurant. Please join us as we treat ourselves to dinner. We'll be tossing around ideas for more things we would like to do together, both for fun and to help where we can. We are currently putting together our Final Exam week/Christmas care packages for our 15 2013 Scholarship Recipients. We've received a couple donations and continue to need much more. We would like to send homebaked cookies, homemade or store bought candies, hot chocolate/cider/tea packets, stocking stuffer type small gifts, or anything else you think college students would enjoy (does not have to be food!). Please bring donations with you to dinner at Tamarac or send us a message here and we can pick it up from you. These kids are doing great halfway into their first year in college, knowing that their CIAO family is thinking of them will be a great surprise. Thank you!

Our Pasta Dinner Planning committee needs YOU! Palm Sunday will get here sooner than we think and there is so much to be done to prepare for our biggest event of the year. This committee's next meeting will be at Tamarac at 6:30 January 8, all are welcome! If you would like more information on how you can help, please contact pasta dinner chairman Bill Sarno (bjsarno@hotmail.com) or any officer or board member. 

There will be NO general membership meeting for the month of December. Meetings will resume in January with our annual mixer Jan 27, place to be announced. 

And finally, we have a winner!!!!! Congratulations to Roger Doty whose name was drawn at our general meeting Monday evening. Roger was present and went home with $300! The pot is back to $100 for our next drawing, it could be you!

November General Membership Meeting

Our next General Membership meeting will be held Monday November 25th, at the Milano Cafe'.  Appetizers will begin at 5:45, dinner at 6:15 and the meeting/speaker will start at 7. Our dinner last month was exceptional and we received many comments on how good it was.

 Betsy Winget, Executive Director of Senior Center Services on West Elm St. is our guest speaker. The Senior Center Services is an outstanding facility and CIAO members will be surprised by all of the services that are provided that can greatly improve the quality of an individual’s life. Attend this month’s meeting and learn how to live younger!

   Our cash drawing is up to $300! If we draw your name, you must be in attendance to win or the money goes back in the pot for the next drawing. Please join us!

We have photos posted from our Reverse Raffle. Check out the Event Photos tab! 

Are we really just two weeks away from Thanksgiving? How did that happen, where did time go? We've had our first snow of the season, we're busy planning our holiday gatherings and we're already getting fliers for Black Friday sales. Everyone is busy busy busy!  Here at CIAO, we're no exception. Over the next few weeks we have several things planned, a great mix of holiday fun with something for everyone. We've got opportunities to make new friends, get together with old friends and more ways than ever to be involved.

Coming up this Saturday, November 16, we will hold our annual Reverse Raffle at the Knights of Columbus Hall.  Our Raffle committee has spent the last several months working to make this a great success. It will be a fantastic evening with great food (catered by Milano Cafe'), great fun and your participation enables us to continue helping so many worthy charitable causes. Tickets are sold out. Thank you to everyone who will be attending and thank you to all who have contributed their time and donations. 

Our next General Membership meeting will be held Monday November 28 at the Milano Cafe'.  Appetizers will begin at 5:45, dinner at 6:15 and the meeting/speaker will start at 7. Our dinner last month was exceptional and we received many comments on how good it was.

 Betsy Winget, Executive Director of Senior Center Services on West Elm St. is our guest speaker for the November meeting. The Senior Center Services is an outstanding facility with a dedicated and professional staff that offers many benefits, activities and programs to Lima Area Residents that are 50 years old or older. CIAO members will be surprised by all of the services that are provided by the center that can greatly improve the quality of an individual’s life. Attend this month’s meeting and learn how to live younger!

   Our cash drawing is up to $300! If we draw your name, you must be in attendance to win or the money goes back in the pot for the next drawing. Please join us!

We will hold our CIAO Family Christmas Party, Sunday December 1 from 11am-3pm at the Old Barn Out Back. This will be for ALL CIAO members and their children/grandchildren.  Cost for adults is $12 and includes buffet. CIAO is paying for the children 12 and under. Santa will be there with gifts for the little ones! Call Von McMichael at 419-647-4766 or Ann Bonito at 419-302-8900 to make your reservation.

Our next CIAO Board meeting will be Monday December 2 at Westgate. Dinner at 6/meeting at 7. Any members of CIAO are welcome at our Board meetings, we only ask that you let an officer or board member know in advance that you would like to come. (See our Officers and Board of Directors tab for contact information.) 

For the ladies! Thursday December 5 at 6pm, the ladies of CIAO are getting together for dinner at the restaurant at Tamarac Golf Course (Stevick rd). This will be the first of many events that we will plan together. The goal is to get to know each other better, make new friends, toss about ideas for things we'd like to do together and also help where we are needed. Our first project will be Christmas care packages for our 2013 scholarship recipients. We want to let them know that we are thinking of them as they head into final exams weeks and the Christmas holiday. (Next year we will expand to include all college students who are members or children of CIAO members but we do not yet have that information for this year.)  We are asking for anyone who is able, to bring some homemade Christmas cookies/treats (that pack and travel well), hot chocolate or cider mix, store bought Christmas candies, or other small "gift" items that might be appreciated by college students and can be included in our packages. There will be 15 packages, so just a little bit from many of us will make a very nice surprise for them.  We will package and send them out by the second week of December. If you cannot make it to our ladies' dinner at Tamarac, donations can also be brought to the general membership meeting on November 28 or you can contact Susan Lucente  (susan@lucente.org) and someone can pick up donations from you.  Your contributions will be deeply appreciated!

Planning for our 2014 Pasta Dinner is under way and we need as many members involved as we can possibly get! This is a huge event and there are ways for every member to help, no matter what your abilities are. We have an immediate need for people to serve on the Pasta Dinner Planning Committee. If you can help with this, please contact Pasta Dinner Chairman, Bill Sarno  bjsarno@hotmail.com. The Pasta Dinner Committee will meet at Tamarac Golf Course restaurant on Nov. 20 at 6:30pm. ALL members that are interested in being on the committee are invited to attend. 

Thank you to all who came out for our October general membership meeting. Frank and his crew at the Milano Cafe' really outdid themselves with such a fantastic meal, it was truly a feast of salad, roast pork, rigatoni, mounds of meatballs and Italian sausage, cooked kale, fresh Italian bread still warm from the oven, spumoni...and wine! Our guest speaker, CIAO member Judy Siefer prepared a tender breaded pork for everyone to sample for appetizers and it was delicious! Molto deliziosa! She was very entertaining and many asked for the recipe, but like any great Italian cook, her measuring consists of "a little bit of this" and "a handful of that". We're hoping to get the recipe and post it here soon.

The winner of our cash drawing was David Converse. David was not present so the money goes back into the pot and next month's prize will be $300! David's name is back in the "hat" for another chance next time.

Nominations for officers were taken and accepted. Nominations are as follows: For office of President, Wendy Flook. Vice President Steve Smith and Paul Bonito. Steve withdrew from the running citing inability to take on the time commitment required. Secretary, Parmie Herman and Treasurer, Bea Zuppardo. Because all of the offices are uncontested, these officers' terms will take effect January 2014 and will run a two year term.

We also discussed details of our upcoming Reverse Raffle to be held November 16 at the K of C hall. Our reverse raffle committee led by Sue Page has been working tirelessly to collect donations for the raffle and auctions and sponsoring ducks for the wildly popular live duck races. They are still looking for more donations if anyone would like to donate items/gift cards/services etc or knows of a business that would donate. Anyone wishing to sponsor a duck may do so for $10 per individual or $25 for a business. The deadline to sponsor a duck is coming up very soon, please call Sue Page or send us a message here and we will pass it along to the committee for you.

Overall, this was a wonderfully positive and productive meeting. We welcomed several prospective new members and enjoyed getting to know them. Their applications will be considered by the membership committee and then presented to the Board for approval very soon. We are excited about our growing family!

October General Membership Meeting

Attention members!

Join us Monday October 28th at the Milano Cafe' for our October General Membership meeting. Hors d'oeuvres at 5:45, dinner will be served at 6:15 and the meeting will begin at 7.

At this meeting, any member in good standing may nominate a candidate for all of the officer positions, terms begin in January 2014. Elections will be held in November.

Guest Speaker

Our own member, Judy Siefer will be giving us an Italian cooking demonstration and everyone will get a taste. Judy has quite a reputation for being an extraordinary cook, so this will be a special treat!

We will also hold our monthly cash drawing. Every member's name is in the bucket and must be present to win. Last month's winner was not present so the pot is up to $200 ! 

See you there!

Our new brochure!!!

It's here! After several months of tossing around ideas, writing and re-writing by our Membership Committee,  our brochure is finished. Here is a little teaser, the front cover. We will be stocking our new brochures at local businesses and restaurants and will also have them available to members at our general membership meetings. If you have or know of a business, school, church, etc that would be willing to keep these in stock, let us know! 

Thank you to everyone who came out to our General Membership meeting at Milano Cafe this evening, what a great turnout!  Thank you to CIAO member, Dr.Tony Denisco for such an informative talk on handgun law and concealed weapon permits, it generated a lot of interest and lively discussion. 

Our president, Pete Mariotti spent some time talking about our new revised Constitution and he explained how the new revisions were written with the intent of creating a more member-focused organization where the membership has more knowledge of what's going on and more input in club decisions. According to the new revised Constitution, Board members will now be elected by the membership instead of appointed by the President as the procedure has been. This will allow more diversity and ensure that we have a board that is representative of all the membership. Our first election of Board members will be held next year, alternating election years with the officer positions.  Pete emphasized that the Board welcomes comments, ideas and questions from our membership at any time. 

And the part everyone is wondering about, we held our first cash drawing tonight!  The good news for all of us is, the winner was not present so the money goes into the pot and next month's drawing will be for $200! The bad news is, Brad Spencer, you could have had an extra $100 in your pocket right now. No worries, Brad, your name has been put back into the bucket for another chance next month! 

Tonight is the night!

It's the first full day of Autumn and tonight is our first General Membership Meeting after a summer that flew by too fast. You will want to be here for this.  As if the great food and friendship alone aren't enough to entice you, we are starting something NEW and FUN!  

Cash drawing at every General Membership Meeting starts NOW! 

Here's the plan.  The names of all members are in the bucket.  At each meeting, one name will be drawn. If your name is drawn and you are present, you win $100! If you are not present, your name goes back in the bucket and the $100 is back in the pot for the next meeting. The value of the pot goes up $100 every time the member whose name is drawn is not present, maximum possible prize will be $900 if at the end of our 9 General Membership meetings for the year, no one has won by then. Keep watching the newsletters to see who our winners are and if you missed out on an easy 100 bucks. 

See you tonight at the Milano Cafe!

Next up for ALL members!

Please join us as we resume our general membership meetings for the Fall, Monday September 23rd at Milano Cafe. Hors d'oeuvres at 5:45pm, dinner begins at 6:15 and the speaker and meeting follows at 7.  Dr.Tony Denisco, eye surgeon and expert and past instructor for handgun carrying permits will talk to us about handgun carry laws and permits for Ohio. 

Coming up!

This is a private event for CIAO members (and guests of Italian heritage) and their families.  Don't forget to RSVP to Von McMichael  as soon as possible if you will be attending!

Scholarship Awards Dinner June 24, 2013

( Lima News press release here )

Thank you to all who attended our annual scholarship and awards recognition dinner and to all who made it happen! The beautiful City Club in downtown Lima was the perfect location for the festivities and as always,  Frank Guagenti and his crew from Milano Cafe served a delicious Italian feast. 

What was so funny?  

I would say the laughter was all about this-------->
And it was, but the truth is, when you get these people together over a plate of good Italian food and conversation, you're in for a good time.






After dinner, we were fortunate to hear a few words from our very own Dr. Parmie Herman who spoke about how receiving a scholarship many years ago from our organization was significant in helping her get to where she is today.  

Congratulations to our 2013 scholarship recipients who were chosen from a very large number of qualified and deserving applicants. We will keep in touch and we look forward to seeing what your future holds for you.

Andre'as Williams

Ashlynn Vieira

Austin Etzler

Bethany Koch

Brendan Giambruno-Fuge

Cassidy Bowman

Daniel Settlemire

Caitlynn Holobaugh

Hailey Perkins

Rachael Kahle

Rachel Keske

Tyler Rigg

Rachel Yoder

  Congratulations also to Paul Nardini and Joe Luchini for your Service Above Self Awards. Both are well-deserved! 

Paul and Vicki Nardini

Paul's acceptance speech was inspiring to all.

Joe, surprised and happy.