Local restaurateur lends a hand for earthquake shattered region

Ernie Garcia
elgarcia@lohud.com

TUCKAHOE — Elio Di Rosa has dedicated 29 years of his life to Mamma Assunta, his Columbus Avenue restaurant, but he hasn't forgotten his distant homeland.

His attachment to Abruzzo, a region in central Italy ravaged by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on April 6, is why he and his brother Angelo Di Rosa are participating in fundraisers this week to help the region recover.

"I saw with my own eyes what really happened, the temporary housing people lived in," said Elio Di Rosa, who traveled in July to his hometown of Cugnoli, also in Abruzzo.

The earthquake destroyed many parts of Abruzzo. The epicenter was just an hour's drive from Di Rosa's hometown, which did not suffer serious damage. When his brother, the owner of Scalini Osteria at 65 Pondfield Road in Bronxville, was approached about sponsoring concerts to raise money for Abruzzo, the pair quickly agreed.

"I thought the idea was fantastic," said Elio Di Rosa, 52, whose event had been scheduled for Friday. "I understand the magnitude of the disaster."

The fundraisers feature concerts by D-Band, a piano, saxophone and vocals trio from Abruzzo who are touring the metro area to raise money for the recovery effort.

The local fundraisers are the idea of Yonkers residents Carmine Nardis and his wife, Ana Lucia Camacho. Nardis is a native of Villa Santa-Angelo, a town in the Abruzzo region where 17 people were killed out of 400 residents. The couple said that they decided to help raise funds for Nardis' hometown after visiting Villa Santa-Angelo shortly after the earthquake.

"It was really very devastating for us to see the people you care about and the land you love so much affected so badly," said Nardis, 57, who runs AvantisIT, an information technology consulting firm.

After returning from Italy, Nardis and Camacho decided to solicit donations from local Italian Americans and their friends. That effort raised about $60,000 and they subsequently established the Sustainable Abruzzo Project, a nonprofit set up to build a community center in Villa Sant-Angelo in the short term.

"We'd like to see some projects to start some type of programs that can help the region revitalize itself in the long term," said Nardis, who said the community center would be used for youth and the elderly.

The next fundraiser will be on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Westchester Italian Cultural Center at 1 Generoso Pope Place in Tuckahoe, where D-Band will perform a concert preceeded by a cocktail reception with food and drinks donated by Scalini Osteria and Station Plaza Wines & Spirits of Bronxville, whose owner is also from Abruzzo. Tickets for the show are $25.

Patricia Calce, a program administrator, said the Westchester Italian Cultural Center decided to collaborate with the Sustainable Abruzzo Project because the center is open to working with all Italian American organizations.

Calce also said the center was involved earlier this year with the Italian consulate in helping to raise funds for Abruzzo. Calce said that locally there are more people who trace their heritage to Abruzzo than she thought, mostly second- and third-generation Italian Americans.

Although he is a native of Abruzzo, Elio Di Rosa said that it was simply a coincidence that the Sustainable Abruzzo Project approached him and his brother to help raise funds. On the Monday before the Friday concert at Mamma Assunta, Di Rosa said that the Italian government has done much to rebuild homes and infrastructure, but there were still needs and a community center might not be a government priority.

Di Rosa wasn't sure what to expect of the concert at Mamma Assunta, but he was enthusiastic about pitching in for Abruzzo.

"If we can help, why not?" he said. "We're going to give it a try."