Copper Cliff Italians have a lot to celebrate this year, Glenn Yurich said.
Yurich, Ron Falcioni and Gary Favot took the time to pose for pictures recently outside the Italian Club, in Copper Cliff’s “Little Italy.”
Yurich is a member of the organizing committee for the 75th anniversary of the Italian Club. Falcioni is the current kitchen manager of the club and Favot is on the executive this year. All three had relatives who were founding members of the club.
Yurich’s mother, Valentina Silvestri, was a founding member of the original executive that organized the ethnic based club in 1934. In fact, it was the women in the Italian community who did the ground work for the formation of the Italian Club. It was originally named the Italian Ladies Society of Copper Cliff.
“The first executive were all women. They organized fundraising dances and theatrical concerts, developed a membership base, networked with their peers at teas and various socials, and instituted children’s activities.”
It was Venusta Boccini, a Windsor visitor in 1933, who chided the Copper Cliff Italian women to start a club.
“She suggested the women should organize an association for themselves as a means to meet outside the home, exchange ideas and organize events. Windsor had such a club.”
Yurich said the women went door to door to raise the money. Membership was 25 cents.
“After a year the men realized the women had something good going and they got involved,” Yurich said, with a chuckle.
After meeting at Nazzareno Taus’ Co-operative Hall, they were eventually able to take over an existing Roman Catholic church — St. Elizabeth Church. The minister was Italian, she said.
The club opened in 1935 after extensive renovations. The name was changed to the Italian Club, Società italiana di Copper Cliff, and Emilio Tessaro was elected president. Though her mother was born in Copper Cliff, her mother’s father, Eugene, came from the Fano area of Italy in 1903 to work for Canadian Copper (a forerunner of Inco) as a brakeman on the trains.
“It was the promise of work that attracted Italians to Canada and more specifically to Sudbury,” she added.
Most of the Italians who settled in Copper Cliff were from the middle regions of Italy. They were fishermen, seamen, merchants, businessmen and farmers. Fano is on the Adriatic Sea coastline, she noted.
She said life was tough here for the immigrants until they became better organized. Yurich said there was discrimination from the more established residents, but it was not long before the new immigrants got going with their lives and businesses.
“There was an Italian-owned dress shop, ice cream store, hairdresser, meat market, a shoemaker, a barber and a dairy. You name it we had it,” she said.
“We had a saying, that if you were raised on the hill (Little Italy) you would make it.”
They became business people, doctors, judges, lawyers, musicians, nurses, teachers airline hostesses and dentists, she added.
The Italian Club was the core of the Italian community in Copper Cliff.
“It was meant to develop and protect our identity at that time,” Yurich explained.
The challenge facing third generation Italians is the mixed heritage marriages and the children resulting.
“I married a Ukrainian myself,” she said as she chuckled. “I sense that the children from mixed heritages may not have the same passion (for the club) as our past generations.”
Despite this demographic challenge, the Italian Club is still a popular destination today. There are 350 members. They held a memories night May 6.
“It sold out. We had 250 people watching pictures of Italians from Copper Cliff on a computer generated screen.”
More anniversary celebrations are being finalized by organizers at this time. A bocce tournament will be held in June. A gala will be organized for the end of October at the club. Ticket prices will be announced. From September to the end of May the general public can attend the club for Thursday supper at 5:30 p.m.
“Each week there is an Italian specialty dish, ” she said.
Fridays there is a chicken and spaghetti lunch offered for $10, everything included, year round. And, when it comes to offering support for Vale Inco workers, Yurich said the Italian Club is there for them.
“I know the cooks will make a little extra food. That is taken to the picket lines in Copper Cliff for the strikers. After all, they supported us all these years.”
Phone 682-4513 for more information on upcoming Italian Club events.
Copper Cliff Italian Club founding executive (1934)
President
Luigia Bargnesi
Vice-President
Lina Giommi
Corresponding Secretary
Delia Giommi
Asst. Corresponding Secretary
Enrichetta Falcioni
Treasurer
Domenica Silvestri
Financial Secretary
Elsa Narduzzi
Auditors
Lina Brema, Gina Toppazzini
Councillors
Mafalda Longarini, Rosina Morelli, Elsa Perlini, Annunziata Pianosi, Valentina Silvestri and Ida Volpini
Interpreter
Antenische Moroso
