When Mary Ann Pedersen first joined the Highwood Bocce Club, she had no aspirations to be in leadership. “I wasn’t thinking in that direction,” Pedersen says. It was just before the COVID-19 pandemic and she was one of several women who took part in Sunday Funday, an informal, non-competitive experience for women who wanted to learn how to play bocce. Pedersen and her husband had joined in part because they had the time now that their kids were away at college. “I’m 100 percent Italian and an Italian speaker and I figured it could be a way to practice my …

A retired offensive lineman on this side of the Atlantic, Justin Pugh has been tasked with taking American football to the next level in the land of his wife’s ancestors. After 11 seasons as an offensive lineman for the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals, the next act of Justin Pugh’s life in American football has taken him to Italy, of all places. In February Pugh, 36, accepted the job of commissioner of the Italian Football League, becoming the first American to hold the position. Don’t feel badly if you haven’t heard of the Italian Football League. Pugh only learned …

Maria SS. della Croce di Triggiano is going all out for the 100th anniversary of its festa with a series of celebrations this fall. Society president Rocco Scavo says the celebration will be expanded to accommodate the special anniversary with around 80 guests flying in from Triggiano, Bari, where the members trace their roots. Scavo was born in Triggiano, a town of around 26,000 people in the Puglia region of southern Italy who embrace the Blessed Mother as their patroness. He often returns for the festa, a three-day affair each September that draws tens of thousands of people. While addressing …

The VP of ticket operations for the White Sox, Mike Mazza is happy to be scrambling to meet surging demand during the team’s breakout season. Mike Mazza has been helping White Sox fans attend home games for nearly 40 years, first as a seasonal worker in the ticket office and now as vice president of ticket operations for the team. In addition to making sure the process of attending the minimum 80-plus White Sox home games each year is a breeze, Mazza and his team have helped the club pull off some huge special events and popular promotions over the …

San Rocco has been a part of Frank DeFrenza’s life from his childhood in Italy through his adult life in the Chicago area. DeFrenza was born in 1946 in Valenzano, a town outside Bari, Puglia, where San Rocco is the patron saint. “They say because of him the plague didn’t touch Valenzano,” DeFrenza says. San Rocco was a 14th-century French noble who gave away his wealth to live as a pilgrim, miraculously healing plague victims across Italy. After contracting the plague himself, he was saved by a hunting dog that brought him food and licked his wounds in a forest …

The son of American and Italian professors who taught in Zurich during his youth, Alex Hall was perfectly positioned to embrace and eventually excel in slopestyle, the relatively new event in freestyle skiing. The 2026 Winter Olympics were an opportunity for Italians to showcase their country and the majesty of the Italian Alps to athletes around the world. For Team USA’s Alex Hall, the 2026 Milan Cortina Games were also an opportunity to connect with his Italian heritage. Hall was born in Alaska but grew up in Switzerland where his father, an American from Salt Lake City, and mother, an …

John Galluzzi first joined the San Rocco di Potenza Society around 20 years ago after learning of their mission: To care for the poor and sick like the saint the group is devoted to. “The men and women in the society are all pointed toward the same thing, continuing to honor and venerate San Rocco,” Galluzzi says. After years as a member, Galluzzi was asked to accept the responsibility of being the group’s president. “It’s just a tremendous honor,” Galluzzi says. “I don’t think I really deserve it, I think there’s a lot of people who could do it.” San …

For 50 years, members of the Mazzini-Verdi Club and Mazzini-Verdi Ladies Club have gathered at 9230 Belmont Ave. in Franklin Park to spend time together, host events in the clubhouse ballroom and play in friendly yet competitive games of bocce on the indoor courts. To lead the clubs as they begin the next 50 years are two presidents with plenty of experience, Luigi Banducci and Lydia Arnstein. Arnstein joined the Mazzini-Verdi Ladies Club around 35 years ago. This year and next will be Arnstein’s third two-year term as president. Her predecessor, Giovanna Carlino, sadly passed away late last year, during …

Spinal muscular atrophy may confine her to a wheelchair, but it hasn’t prevented Luisa Rizzo from soaring to the top of the drone racing world. The pinnacle of 23-year-old Luisa Rizzo’s drone racing career so far was her triumph at the 2024 Women’s World Drone Racing Championship in Hangzhou, China. She used her innate talent, lightning-fast reflexes and strategic prowess to outlast 111 of the world’s best pilots, all while seated in her motorized wheelchair. “When I won the gold medal, it was unexpected for everyone. I had everyone cheering for me, not just Italians,” Rizzo says. “I was not …

Attorney Lindsey Mirabella’s first experience with the DuPage County Chapter of the Justinian Society of Lawyers came when she was instructed to attend an event by one of the partners at her first law firm after she passed the bar in 2021. “As a baby attorney, of course I said ‘Yes ma’am I will certainly be there,’” Mirabella says. “I loved it right away, it felt like home.” Mirabella was brought onto the chapter’s board almost immediately and before she knew it she was helping plan the group’s annual charity ball. “I was a total fish out of water just …