When Father Adam Forno offered the opening prayer at Sgt. Bonanno Lodge, Order Sons & Daughters of Italy’s 40th anniversary, he noted how long it could take for then new Italian emigrants to be recognized. Fast forward, and the speaker and longtime lodge advocate is the daughter of a U.S. Army Infantry soldier and an Italian war bride, Palm Beach County Mayor Maria Sachs.

Sharing her family history, her parents met in “a little store in Naples,” when her father was in the service, Sachs said. Her mom had to wait to come to the U.S. to join him. And when she finally took a ship to New York and passed the Statue of Liberty, she thought she was home. “Little did she know my Dad was from Detroit!” Sachs, told members and guests at the celebration in the Delray Elks Lodge.