An Awards Gala event of the Grand Lodges is to be held on May 6, 2018 at the Roma Lodge, 7130 Spring Street located in Racine, Wisconsin, which is midway between Illinois and Wisconsin. The event begins at 12:00 noon with a wonderful Italian buffet table and continues with the Awards Ceremony beginning at 1:30 p.m. The cost to attend is $65 per person..

This is the first time the Awards Gala will be held in a Wisconsin venue, although not all of the honorees are Wisconsites.  The host Wisconsin lodge is named in the honor of Filippo Mazzei, the Italian credited by Thomas Jefferson as the inspiration for this central passage in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, …”.

The first person to be honored is former Assemblyman Peter Barca and the concluding honoree is Tonette Walker, the wife of the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.  However, in-between the other honorees all are contributors to the health, welfare, and benefit of society and they are:  Anthony J. Bruno of the Italian Workman’s Club of Madison, Wisconsin; Luigi Caira, a dentist from Kenosha, Wisconsin; as well as John DiMotto, a judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Joseph Emanuele, the Vice President of the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Joseph Mangiamele, Professor Emeritus of the UWM School of Architecture; CJ Martello, the Fra Noi Correspondent from Chicago; and Deacon Russell Missureli, the Chaplain of the Roma Lodge; Dr. Kathryn Occhipinti of Rosedale, Illinois; and Attorney John F. Salza of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Walker.