Big Night for Abruzzo Today 24 June 2009

Caffè Umbria to Participate in "Big Night for Abruzzo"
To Help Support Earthquake Relief Efforts

On Wednesday, June 24th, Caffè Umbria's Retail Cafés will join over 50 other restaurants participating in "Big Night for Abruzzo", a one-day fundraising event to provide relief for the people impacted by the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. A portion of the proceeds from the day will be donated to this effort.  In addition, customers receive a complimentary bag of coffee beans for each $20.00 donation made.

"We are all deeply concerned about the people that have been affected by this tragedy," said partner Pasquale Madeddu. "We are honored to take this small step in assisting the relief efforts taking place in the region."

We invite you to come in on Wednesday, June 24th, for a meal or an espresso to show your support for these relief efforts. The Portland Retail Café is located in the Pearl District at 303 NW 12th Avenue.

http://www.caffeumbria.com
http://www.bignightforabruzzo.com

UNICO benefit on 20 June 2009

Some of you were there from the beginning . . . . and some of you have become friends and supporters along the way . . . and in honor of this, we hope that you will be able to join in our excitement as we celebrate this occasion.

On Saturday, June 20, it will be almost exactly one year since we held our Charter Dinner and became an official Chapter of UNICO-National, the largest Italian-American Service Organization in the United States. We are the only Chapter in the Northwest (so far)!

We plan on a great family-style Italian meal, camaraderie, terrific raffle prizes and wonderful entertainment provided by John English "The Voice" - a Tribute to Frank Sinatra.

Please go to our Web site to check out all of the wonderful things UNICO-National and UNICO-Portland are about. Dinner reservations can be purchased at the Web site as well, through PayPal or by check.

www.unicopdx.com

We hope you can join us ~ Salute!

Scuola Italiana Open House

SATURDAY JUNE 6TH, 3-5 PM

The International School, Main campus (for directions please follow
the instruction on the link below)
http://www.intlschool.org/contact/directions/

Come to see us, learn about the preschool and language course
programs, the new teachers, our location.

Elisa singing in Portland on November 22nd, 2008

Italian-born songstress Elisa, a multi-platinum, award-winning star in her native country, will launch her first tour of the United States and Canada on October 29, 2008. The tour is in support of her North American debut album 'Dancing', which was released July 15 on Sugar/Universal.

In 2007 the track "Dancing" appeared on the popular reality show "So You Think You Can Dance". Since that episode, the track has been downloaded on iTunes over 80,000 times. This has provided the perfect stepping stone to launch into the U.S. market.

Elisa has shared the stage with the likes of Tina Turner, Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, appearing on at Bocelli's world famous concert in Tuscany, which premiered as a special for the December 2007 PBS Pledge Drive and continues to air repeatedly, nationwide. This concert, featuring the Bocelli/ELISA duet, "La Voce Del Silenzio," as well as ELISA's performance of her own single, "Dancing," was released as a CD/DVD combo - Andrea Bocelli, Vivere: Live in Tuscany- in January 2008. To date, though, her only North American engagements have been singing the Italian national anthem at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and two sold-out shows at NYC's Joe's Pub in April 2008.

The tour is made of seventeen gigs in some of the coolest venues of the US and Canada. One of them will be the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR (830 E Burnside St) where Elisa is playing there on 22nd November. We have asked Elisa to talk about this long awaited tour outside of Italy.

"The tour mainly focuses on the songs included in the 'Dancing' album. I will be accompanied by a 4 person band and I'll be taking a different approach compared with my usual concert performance, as these shows will be tailored to fit in with the intimacy of the club environment. I am going to play different instruments during most of the songs, including acoustic and electric guitars, piano and loop machines. I have never played that much during a concert of mine!" Elisa said.

The setlist will be enriched by some tributes to singers that inspired and influenced Elisa's career. Thus you are going to hear three cover songs originally written by 'Tears For Fears' ("Mad World"), Janis Joplin ("Mercedes Benz") and Kate Bush ("Wuthering Heights"). In addition, the tour will feature other songs from Elisa's repertory, even songs sung in Italian. The main idea turns around the club atmosphere to show the real essence of the songs.

After the gig, a "meet-and-greet" with Elisa will be set up, and the public will be given the chance to buy the 'Dancing' album. In order to ensure yourself a place at the meet-and-greet, you can send an email us at contactus@elisatoffoli.com with your name(s).

The tickets can be purchased both online at http://ev12.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3aTWS%3aPDFL08:PDFL1122%3a&linkID=twspok or directly at the venue.

Don't forget to take a look at Elisa's official website at www.elisatoffoli.com as well as at her MySpace page at www.myspace.com/elisaus in order to listen to her voice.

UNICO meeting

Updates from the UNICO organization:

Subject: Upcoming UNICO Meeting
From: joann@bellastanzainteriors.net
Date: Mon, May 12, 2008 11:20 am

Ciao Everyone ~

I hope this email finds all of you happy and healthy. Hopefully, all of you have saved the date for our next meeting on Monday, May 19, one week from today! We will be gathering at De Nicola's Restaurant, 3520 SE Powell Boulevard, Portland, 503.239.5220, at 7 o'clock in the evening. There is a private room toward the back of the restaurant that will work well for us. Many of you are already familiar with DeNicolas since this is where the first UNICO meeting was held! I will order some pizzas for us, and anyone who is interested can just donate $5. There is also the option of ordering whatever you want off the menu, or of course, not eating at all. Everyone can handle their individual drink orders - many options to choose from. There will also be cake in honor of April and May birthdays! As always, please feel free to invite guests/prospective members.

One of the main items on the agenda will be electing a Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, so that I can submit those names to UNICO National before our Charter Night. Since this our first "election" it will be somewhat casual and informal. Depending on how many candidates are interested in each position, i.e., if there is more than one person for each position, we will vote by secret ballot. If there is only one candidate for each position, that person will be elected by default without due process of voting! If you are interested in any of the positions, please let me know before the 19th. Below is a brief description of the positions.

Speaking of the Charter Night, I want to remind everyone of the date, time and location. It will be on Saturday, June 21 at Ernesto's Italian Restaurant, 8544 SW Apple Way, Beaverton at 6:00 in the evening. It is shaping up to be a great evening. We will have John English, "th e voice" of Frank Sinatra performing, officers of UNICO from New Jersey and California attending, and a Raffle and Auction, as well as a great dinner. Several people from other Italian organizations have approached me to express interest in attending as well - Yay! we are being recognized! Everyone is encouraged to invite family and friends. At the meeting, I will have invitations printed up to distribute, so that you can extend a formal invitation to those you want to invite. Of course, we will discuss this topic more in-depth at the meeting!

As you can see, there is much going on, so please try to attend the meeting if possible. Please r.s.v.p. to me at your convenience either by email or phone - 503.481.1119. Grazie Mille!!!

***********

VICE-PRESIDENT: The Vice-President will be responsible for taking over the role of the President if unforeseen circumstances should arise wherein the President can no longer fulfill the obligation, or cannot attend a meeting. In addition, the Vice-President will assist the President with routine activities such as planning events, fundraisers, and meetings. The Vice-President will also be consulted, if necessary, on any matters and decisions that require advice by the President.

SECRETARY: The main function of the Secretary is to take minutes/notes of each meeting, compose them in a concise, written form for the record, and review them with members at the beginning of the following meeting.

TREASURER: The Treasurer is responsible for maintaining the Chapter's checking account, handling accounts payable and receivable, and keeping a detailed ledger of all financial transactions. The Treasurer will also give a brief update/report on the financial status of the Chapter at meetings as well.

Portland-Bologna sister city reception

Photos from the 08 May 2008 event.

Photos of Consul's Visit

Here are the photos from the Consul General Roberto Falaschi visit to Portland.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scasso/sets/72157604676729937/