A longtime resident of suburban Chicago’s Melrose Park, Tom Olson is an indefatigable supporter of a multitude of youth, civic and charitable organizations, earning a plethora of awards for his efforts to actively fundraise and lend his creative skills pro bono. So how much time does Olson devote to public service? “Unlimited, to ensure success,” he replies. “I love what I do and the people I do it with! Seeing the joy in the people’s faces that we help makes everything worthwhile.” Olson retired in 2012 after close to three decades of work for his alma mater, Triton College in …

Working for the Italian Trade Agency since she was a university student, Paola De Faveri has devoted her career to helping Italian companies go international. The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) is the Italian governmental agency that supports the business development of Italian companies abroad and works to promote foreign investment in Italy. ITA operates through a network of 69 offices and 18 satellite offices in 74 countries. The Chicago office is led by Paola De Faveri, a native of Rome who has worked for ITA for nearly 40 years. De Faveri talked to Fra Noi about the agency, its focus …

When he was about 10 years old, Lorenzo Fiorentino listened to his uncle Bernardo describe his service in the Italian Army during World War II with pride, but never glory. Those conversations planted the seed that inspired Fiorentino to join the U.S. Army, and later morphed into an unbridled desire to recognize the contribution and sacrifices of his fellow veterans. Fiorentino is the driving force behind the creation of Chicagoland Veterans Campus (CVC) located at 39 Army Trail Boulevard in a 100-year-old former school building owned by St. Paul Lutheran Church. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the CVC is the result of …

Now the principal of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral School in Chicago, Anna Cirilli owes her desire to pursue a career in school leadership to the overcrowding in Chicago public schools. Cirilli worked as a teacher for kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades at Marcus Garvey Elementary School from 2000 to 2012. Her last year there, she taught a class of 38 students with no assistance. “It was then that I realized I wanted to make a bigger impact by moving into school leadership,” she explains. “I believed that even the most dedicated teacher could only do so much when faced …

Jennifer Adriana LaDelfa has been charged with organizing The Italian Heritage & Culture Committee of New York is commemorating its 50th anniversary, and Jennifer Adriana LaDelfa is chairing the celebration. Since its inception 50 years ago, the Italian Heritage & Culture Committee of New York (IHCC-NY) has endeavored to promote, present and preserve Italian and Italian-American culture. The organization — which serves the Tri-State area centered on New York City encompassing parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — has done so by hosting, coordinating and publicizing myriad special events, concerts, exhibits, lectures and proclamations. Its highest recognition, the …

Starting at age 5 as a dancer and now as dance director for nearly 30 years, Mark DeSanctis has invested a great deal of time, energy and resources into his volunteer work with the Milwaukee-based nonprofit dance group Tradizione Vivente. None of it ever felt like a burden, DeSanctis says. “It is a labor of love,” he explains. “The reward is seeing our traditions continue, watching our kids grow into adult dancers, seeing audiences connect with their heritage, and knowing that something meaningful is being passed from one generation to the next.” Founded in 1945 in Milwaukee, Tradizione Vivente’s repertoire …

Well-known in the larger Italian-American community, he has emerged as a passionate advocate for the region of his birth. When it comes to celebrating and advocating for the beautiful Italian region of Puglia, few in this country can say they’ve dedicated as much time and energy to the cause as Pasquale “Pat” Capriati. A member of the Ufficio di Presidenza del Consiglio Generale dei Pugliesi nel Mondo, president of the Federazione Regione Puglia Chicago, co-founder of Associazione Regionale Pugliese d’America and co-founder and first president of the Confederation of Pugliese Organizations in North America, Capriati has embarked on innumerable projects …

Carla Bruni, a professor at the School of the Art Institute Chicago and preservation specialist for the Chicago Bungalow Association, loves everyday stuff that people don’t notice or find particularly interesting. That’s why she wanted to celebrate “everyday” architecture in the book “Chicago Homes: A Portrait of the City’s Everyday Architecture,” which she co-authored with illustrator Phil Thompson. Published last year, the book features nearly 200 illustrations by Thompson, an artist and owner of Wonder City Studio, who also wrote the first four chapters of the book. A preservation and sustainability consultant specializing in community engagement and resiliency, Bruni teaches …

Little known outside of Cleveland, the Italian Cultural Garden has been celebrating Italy’s contribution to the world on a grand scale for nearly a century. Michelangelo, Vinci, Dante, Galileo, Marconi, Virgil, Palladio, Giotto, Petrarch, Verdi, Ovidio, Donatello, Bernini. Outside of Cleveland, not many know that a monument honoring these Italian greats is located in the city’s Rockefeller Park. Their statues and carved images are immortalized in the Italian Cultural Garden, a Renaissance-style monument listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Dedicated in 1930, this public space was the center of Italian activities in Cleveland in the 1930s and 1940s. …

Pat Disabato takes to the stage of the The Lyric Theater in Blue Island. After a three-decade career in newspapers, Pat Disabato now works as live events manager for The Lyric Theater in uptown Blue Island, which he describes as having “a vibe like no other.” “It resembles a 1940s Las Vegas cabaret with state-of-the-art sound and lighting,” he says. “We have servers taking drink orders, so folks can enjoy the show without having to leave their seat. They love that.” A native of Blue Island, Disabato grew up wanting to be either a major league baseball player or a …