Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Over the six years Stuart Caravello has spent with Columbian Club Charitable Foundation, the organization doubled the amount of money given to each academic scholarship recipient. Being part of the foundation’s scholarship program is the thing Caravello will miss most now that his time as foundation trustee and chairman has come to an end.
“It’s bittersweet,” he says. “I need a break, but I actually love it. It’s so rewarding.”
Caravello loves the feeling of giving and seeing the expressions on the student’s faces when they receive their academic grants. He first witnessed that joy at the 2009 installation dinner, his first as a club member.
The Columbian Club of Chicago was founded by eight Italian-American businessmen in September 1939 to help create an atmosphere of mutual support and goodwill while the country was struggling through the Great Depression. In 1984, it created the Columbian Club Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)3 corporation through which its major fundraising and philanthropic activities are run.
Caravello served as president of the Columbian Club in 2019, when he began his tenure on the foundation board. He stepped up to the chairmanship of the foundation in 2020.
The annual scholarships are a point of pride for the club and foundation, with the amount given to each recipient doubling from 2018 to 2024, Caravello reports.
Scholarships are open to any area high school student of Italian heritage based on both need and merit. Foundation members help select which students would receive the scholarships.
The club usually grants around 16 scholarships each year, except in 2020, when a total of 32 students applied. That year, the foundation decided it wouldn’t turn any applicant away, because of the hardships the students were facing due to the pandemic, Caravello explains. “Every kid who had applied was worthy of it,” he adds.
The Foundation’s largest fundraiser is the annual golf outing in July. The Columbian Club also hosts events that raise funds for specific charities. In October, the club hosted an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner at Casa Italia in Stone Park for Marklund Children’s Home, and in November it hosted a brunch for Misericordia Heart of Mercy. Both charities serve individuals with developmental disabilities.
While Caravello’s tenure on the foundation board has come to an end, he will remain active with the club, serving on its 2025 board of directors, where he’ll focus on mentoring other directors.
On the professional front, Caravello was the longtime owner and president of Roselle-based S.J. Caravello Co., a general contracting company founded by his father in 1968. In 2018, he closed the company to pursue a career in local government and now works as the chief building official for the city of West Chicago.
“After 2018 I had a lot more free time and put all of that into the Columbian Club,” Caravello says, adding that he’s ready to have more free time again.
