It all started in Hemingway Neighborhood Pool in 2009. They were just a bunch of folks floating around and floating an idea of starting a second Italian American Club at The Villages. They were all members of the original Villages Italian American Club that meets on the northside but the membership there had gotten extremely large. So why not another Italian American Club on the southside?
And there it began the “Italian American Club South” (IACS).
President Errol Verduchi recalls, “Before we made any official announcements or held our first meeting in September 2009 we had over 300 members all from ‘word of mouth’”. Vice President Fred Caprio attributes the clubs continued success from day one to our commitment of providing top notch entertainment every month at our social. Fred says, “As much as many people come to see the entertainer for the month the members really wait for the highlight at every social when the Entertainment Chair Joe Perico leads the members in the club theme song ‘That’s Amore’”.
Treasurer Jeff Taffuri noted, “The real success is in our membership. The members support all our functions and have provided strong financial support through their patronage of our raffle program. On Sunday September 15th we held our sold out 2nd Anniversary Gala at the Savannah Center duplicating the result of our 1st Anniversary Gala at the Savannah Center in 2012.”
The club member’s generosity enabled the formation of the new Community Support Committee (CSC) in 2013. Volunteers Denise Bottos, Linda Julian, Lillian Marrone, Elaine Milacci, Eileen Perico and Marge Verduchi worked together and created the committee. Secretary Mary Ann Taylor recalls, “The ladies did a fantastic job. They wrote a mission statement and a business plan and made a presentation to the Executive Board at the June Executive Board meeting”. Trustee Tony D’Aquisto said, “I was very impressed with how dedicated and professionally the ladies tackled the task”. Trustee Don Sementino remembers, “With the good works that will be done by the CSC and the commitment of the ladies there was no way they were going to get anything less than unanimous support from the Board”. Trustee Vinnie Damato noted, “On the Boards part it required an amendment and revision to our By-Laws. A little work but nothing near what the ladies did”.
The CSC’s hard work in combination with the financial support of the members allowed the IACS 2nd Anniversary Gala to be very special. The club donated to six local organizations a total of $2500. Chaplin Jeremy Sweeney accepted a check for $300 for the “Lady Lake Little League Scholarship Program”. Chaplin Sweeney thanked the IACS for the donation and explained how it helps kids who can’t afford the cost of Little League to play with the condition that their grades in school must continually improve. Director Hanna McClain of the Fruitland Park “Beyond the Walls Ministry” food pantry accepted a check for $350. Director McClain thanked the members and explained how the IACS donation actually has a buying power equal to one month’s work of the ministry because of the partnering they have with other programs.
Village’s resident’s Tom Miller and Ken Johnson accepted a check for “The Villages Shrine Club” in the amount of $350. Tom is the President of the Shrine Club and told the members how thankful they are for the donation which will help pay for the transportation of ailing children to the Orlando Children’s Hospital. Sandy DeChristofaro represented “Operation Shoebox” and accepted a donation of $500. Sandy thanked the IACS and gave the members an insight of how “Operation Shoebox” was started by 1 woman in Belleview and has grown to over 1100 volunteers. The funds will be used to help with the postage costs of “Operation Shoebox”.
“The St. Vincent de Paul Outreach program provides emergency funds for local families who due to illness, injury or loss of employment are in need”, explained Tom Verrette. Tom along with Dick Waldron accepted a donation of $500 from the IACS for the program. Suzanne Mitchell, a teacher at the Villages Elementary School of Lady Lake, accepted a donation of $500 to help support the school’s food back pack program. Ms. Mitchell explained, “there are many needy children in our area who depend on school meals for proper nutrition. The food back pack program helps to ensure that the children have the nutritional support across the weekend”.
When the awarding of the donations was completed President Verduchi raised his glass and made a toast, “Let’s toast not only our 2nd Anniversary but also for our generosity and support of the local community”. President Verduchi added, “Let’s see if next year we can double the amount of donations”.
With what you may call the business portion of the Gala out of the way the members danced all night to the fantastic Clark Barrios band “Impulse”. Since the club provided bottles of wine to each table Sergeant at Arms Fred Lawrence kept a keen eye out throughout the evening. At evenings end Fred reported he didn’t have to have anyone locked up and only had to take one set of car keys.
The evening ended with the awarding of cash and prizes valued over $500 and President Verduchi thanked all the committee members that helped make the evening a great success, Christine Bartow Caprio’s, Damato’s, D’Aquisto’s, Angela Friedman , Jack Gregory Keith’s, Maio’s, Marrone’s, Perico’s, Petrino’s, Romagnano’s, Schaal’s, Tuzza’s, Anne Valinzo and Nancy von Nostitz.
