Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Casa Italia will host a Day of Remembrance honoring the tragic fire that struck Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago in 1958. Slated for Dec. 6 at the Italian Cultural Center in Stone Park, the event will begin with a continental breakfast at 10 a.m., followed at 10:30 by a seminar.
A panel discussion will feature testimony from OLA fire survivors and community members, including Graceann Jacobellis-DiGioia, sisters Margaret and Rosemary Orlando, and Linda Maffiola-Piatkiewicz.
“This devastating fire not only took the lives of three nuns and 92 students but also fractured an entire ethnic community” Maffiola-Piatkiewicz says. “It brought unimaginable grief not only to the immediate OLA families, but to first responders, reporters, nurses, doctors, with the grief spreading across the nation. This fire was the catalyst that implemented school fire safety procedures, regulations and reform throughout the United States.”
The seminar will also include a display of photographs and news clippings; a video interview by Casa Italia staff with John Kuenster, the now deceased co-author of the book “To Sleep with the Angels”; and an update on the status of the Our Lady of the Angels Mission under the direction and care of Bishop Bob Lombardo and the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist.
There is no charge to attend, but a free-will donation is encouraged, and reservations are a must. (casalibrary@gmail.com, 708-345-5933)
