Dear Family & Friends,
In 2007 the Ciccone, De Luca and Mantine families created a collection of recipes, photos, stories and memories called “From Abruzzo With Love” Version 2. The idea of a picnic emerged while writing the book. That picnic took place on the long weekend in August 2007 in Vancouver at John Hendry Park. Since that picnic, our interest in our roots has led us to meet new relatives and reacquaint ourselves with other old friends. Some of those relatives, a Celli from Salt Spring Island and a Ciccone from Duncan felt left out that they had missed the 2007 picnic. Also, there were many requests from others who had been to the first picnic, and they wanted to know when the next one was scheduled. Margaret Monro (Celli) and Teresa Sainsbury (Ciccone) have graciously agreed to organize a 2010 picnic on the long weekend in August at the same venue.
As we helped them work on the invitation list for the picnic, we realized that this second picnic was turning out to be bigger than just the Ciccone, De Luca and Mantine families. It was going to be a celebration of families who emigrated from Abruzzo and settled in the Hastings East part of Vancouver. We also wanted to include families who settled in other parts of the world and had been researching and finding their links to this area. They want to come too! The picnic will be a celebration of our Abruzzo links; a sharing of our common roots.
Now that plans for a 2010 picnic are underway, an update of the “From Abruzzo with Love” sounds like a good idea. We quickly realized that a simple update of the same information is not sufficient. Our circle of connections is getting bigger, and there are many more stories and photos about relatives not even mentioned in Version 2.
We need your help! We want to produce Version 3 and we want it to tell your stories and show your photos. We plan to create the book after the August 2010 picnic and we are counting on you to contribute. Now is your chance to tell us about your Abruzzo roots. Contributions of pictures, old and new, and stories and memories of your family are wanted. If you have any genealogy charts, send them too. When the charts are linked, you may find that your old friends are really relatives!
The timeline for submitting photos and stories from now until October 1, 2010. The new version of “From Abruzzo with Love” will be available sometime before Christmas.
Send your contributions electronically to Irene McCart (DeLuca) at mailto:imccart@gmail.com
We look forward to seeing your contributions in an E-mail, an envelope sent by post, or handed in at the picnic in August.
2010 PICNIC CONVENERS
Margaret Monro (Celli)
Teresa Sainsbury (Ciccone)
CONSULTANTS (with experience from the 2007 PICNIC)
Madeline Dent (DeLuca)
Irene McCart (DeLuca)
Jen DeLuca
Juanita Madill (Nino/Mantine)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Lucio's Letter
Hello Fellow Abruzzo Descendants
I am posting a letter that will explain itself. When we decided to have our second picnic in 2010, we could not imagine how important the list of names we had could become. Our descendants had no idea what we would be using our new relationships to do. At the same time, and we still believe, that family is family. For many of us, our surnames may have changed but the same blood runs through all our veins and I know that our fathers and mothers and our grandfathers and grandmothers would agree with what we are hoping to do, with this letter.
Hello,
My name is Lucio De Luca. My parents emigrated from Villa Santa Lucia, Abruzzo to Timmins, Ontario in 1950. Their ancestors had lived in the province of L’Aquila for generations. I moved to Ottawa in 1972 to attend university, met my wife, married and have raised our family here.
In August 2009 I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). Despite the valiant efforts of the team of oncologists at the Ottawa General Hospital Cancer Centre, I am now in the final stage of this disease. My only real hope for remission is a bone-marrow transplant. To date, a search of the universal donor list has been unsuccessful. My options are dwindling. My objective now is to generate a new influx of potential donors in the hope of finding a match for me. Hence my letter to you today.
The doctors believe my best chance for a match is if a donor can be found within my ethnic community. As both my parents’ provenance, going back generations, was from the Abruzzo region of Italy, I am making my appeal directly to those of you with a similar heritage.
The process is simple. Using the internet, you logon to http://www.onematch.ca/ , follow the prompts and Canadian Blood Services will mail you a registration kit via Canada Post.
I know that I am making a very special request to which not everyone will be able to respond. However, I ask you to consider not only the prospect of saving my life, but the possibility of matching with one of hundreds of other potential recipients, many of them in the 18-35 year-old age group, who need life-saving bone-marrow or stem-cell transplants.
Please consider this opportunity to make a truly amazing gift of life.
Whatever your decision, thank you for giving this matter your consideration.
Warmest regards,
Lucio De Luca
I am posting a letter that will explain itself. When we decided to have our second picnic in 2010, we could not imagine how important the list of names we had could become. Our descendants had no idea what we would be using our new relationships to do. At the same time, and we still believe, that family is family. For many of us, our surnames may have changed but the same blood runs through all our veins and I know that our fathers and mothers and our grandfathers and grandmothers would agree with what we are hoping to do, with this letter.
Hello,
My name is Lucio De Luca. My parents emigrated from Villa Santa Lucia, Abruzzo to Timmins, Ontario in 1950. Their ancestors had lived in the province of L’Aquila for generations. I moved to Ottawa in 1972 to attend university, met my wife, married and have raised our family here.
In August 2009 I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). Despite the valiant efforts of the team of oncologists at the Ottawa General Hospital Cancer Centre, I am now in the final stage of this disease. My only real hope for remission is a bone-marrow transplant. To date, a search of the universal donor list has been unsuccessful. My options are dwindling. My objective now is to generate a new influx of potential donors in the hope of finding a match for me. Hence my letter to you today.
The doctors believe my best chance for a match is if a donor can be found within my ethnic community. As both my parents’ provenance, going back generations, was from the Abruzzo region of Italy, I am making my appeal directly to those of you with a similar heritage.
The process is simple. Using the internet, you logon to http://www.onematch.ca/ , follow the prompts and Canadian Blood Services will mail you a registration kit via Canada Post.
I know that I am making a very special request to which not everyone will be able to respond. However, I ask you to consider not only the prospect of saving my life, but the possibility of matching with one of hundreds of other potential recipients, many of them in the 18-35 year-old age group, who need life-saving bone-marrow or stem-cell transplants.
Please consider this opportunity to make a truly amazing gift of life.
Whatever your decision, thank you for giving this matter your consideration.
Warmest regards,
Lucio De Luca
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