THANK YOU TO: Srs. Mary Capobianco, Nina Trolio, and Kathryn Grande, for helping with the LaVoce. DATES TO REMEMBER:       December 31st - New Year’s Eve Party       January 5th - Membership Meeting       January 12th - Officers Meeting LADIES NIGHT OUT - Sr. Janis Ceriello All ladies are invited to come down to the Lodge on Monday evenings. It is a social night for the ladies. They play bocce, card games, watch TV and have coffee. More information may be obtained by calling Sr. Janis Ceriello at 671-2388. MENS NIGHT OUT - Br. Vito Greto All men are invited to come down to the Lodge on Friday evenings. They enjoy playing cards, bocce, watching amovie and sometimes they do some cooking. More information may be obtained by calling Br. Vito Greto at 747-8694. HALL RENTAL - Br. Tony Ceriello If you wish to rent the hail, you may call Br. Tony Ceriello at 671-2388 or Br. Angelo Grande at 676-7436. GIFT OF SIGHT: Br. Frank Cassano Please bring any used eyeglasses to the next meeting.

NOMINATIONS TO BE PRESENTED AT THE JANUARY MEETING The nominating committee of Loggia Glen Cove will present the slate of Officers for the year March 2005-March 2006 at the January 5th membership meeting. Once the report is given and accepted, there may be nominations from the general assembly. A person nominated from the floor must be present to accept the nomination. If there are no other nominations for each position, then the nominations will be closed. In February, formal elections will take place for any contests for position in which there are two candidates. This election should be by prepared closed secret ballot. If there are no contests, the Lodge Recording Secretary will cast one ballot for the elected slate of Officers and State Delegates. OUR ITALIAN HERITAGE At the turn of the century, a growing tide of Italians, largely from the south, immigrated to the United States where work was plentiful and land was cheap. They left Italy in search of opportunities their homeland denied them. In southern Italy, for example, noble families owned half of the farmland. As a result, millions of peasants were sharecroppers, were lucky to find work six months out of the year because the landowners were careless about farming and productivity suffered accordingly. When they did work, the peasants had to give as much as half their crops to the landownders. At the same time, these peasants were taxed by the government of the newly united Italy, had their sons drafted into the Italian military and watched their children die from poor nutrition and inferior medical care. The exodus of Italians from their villages more than a century ago has no parallel in history. Out of a population of 14 million southern Italians, an estimated five million left by the outbreak of World War I. It is the largest recorded exodus of a single ethnic group in history. Today, the descendants of those early Italian immigrants number nearly 16 million, acording to the U.S. Census of 2000. The U.S. Census Bureau also reports that Italian Americans are the nation's fifth largest ethnic group with two-thirds of them in white collar positions in business, medicine, law, education and other professions.