Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
To edit Fra Noi is to live in a time warp in which months fold in upon each other, and the present and future blur.
As I write this column for the January issue, Thanksgiving is two days away, Christmas decorations are about to emerge from their boxes in the basement and the New Year seems like a distant dream.
In the midst of this befuddling cocktail of holiday spirits, it’s hard to know which tone to strike. Should I be thankful? Joyful? Resolute? One thing is certain, though: When I think of our advertisers, it’s easy to feel all three.
My heart fills with gratitude every time I contemplate their support. After all, a single sixth-page ad pays for one of our pagelong features, and a full-pager covers one-twelfth of our printing costs.
Without our advertisers making the conscious decision to invest some of their hard-earned dollars in Fra Noi, the feast of news and views, arts and entertainment that we serve up each month would be reduced to table scraps.
Nothing can match the joy of being able to present this gift of community and culture to our readers, except perhaps the joy many of you feel in receiving it.
It’s a gift we must never take for granted. And yet, in our rush to open the many presents laid before us in each issue of the magazine, we often overlook the giver seated nearby.
So before you partake of any of this month’s features, I urge you to devote some of your attention to the advertising beneath them or on the facing page. I also urge you to resolve to patronize at least one of these businesses before the next issue arrives.
There are so many options and so many categories to choose from.
You’ll find banquet halls, restaurants, delis, bakeries and grocery stores, as well as providers of breads, dairy products, fine meats and a wide range of Italian food products.
You’ll also encounter attorneys, dentists and realtors galore, as well as bankers, accountants, plastic surgeons, and an insurance agent, financial advisor, fire claims adjuster and real estate appraiser.
Looking for a contractor? Ours offer industrial cleaning, heating and air conditioning, asphalt and paving, construction and rehab, elevator inspection and auto body repair.
We have an entire memorial section supported by funeral directors, funeral home owners and a crafter of headstones.
Purveyors of toys and women’s clothing, a pair of local radio personalities, a genealogy group and a nationally renowned expert on Italian cuisine round out the Fra Noi advertising family.
Those of you who have been paying attention all along may have noticed the addition of several new family members in this issue. A pair of banquet hall owners, a funeral director, two dentists, an attorney and a liqueur producer have taken the plunge, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
In these challenging economic times, when everyone is watching every penny and striving to make every dollar count, it’s nothing short of a holiday miracle for more than seven dozen business owners, professionals and service providers to cast their financial lot with Fra Noi, month in and month out.
They do it primarily because they view Fra Noi as a worthy cause and their advertising dollars as investments in their community and culture. But they certainly wouldn’t mind a financial return on their investment, as well.
That’s where we come in.
As resolute as our advertisers are in their commitment to Fra Noi, we need to be equally resolute in our commitment to them. They are the founders of the feast, the givers of gifts, the life of the party, and as such have earned our support.
So next time you’re in the market for just about anything, please thumb through the pages of Fra Noi before you hop on the internet or into your car to go shopping.
It’s a great way to say “grazie” to those who have given us so much.
The above appears in the January 2022 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.
