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July 17 - August 21, 2011 |
Inspire 2011 Italian Heritage Month
Five Italian-Canadians lend their stories and roots to celebration
By Letizia Tesi
Originally Published: 2011-06-12
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Luciano Volpe
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Five different voices with a common denominator – Italianità – and a moral imperative as a central theme: to inspire the youngest with personal life stories. They are life stories by Rick Campanelli, Enrico Colantoni, Nick DiDonato, Tony Lacavera, and Ivana Santilli, who on Saturday June 25 will be guests at Columbus Centre for the Inspire 2011 You Are The Future initiative – one of the events organized for Italian Heritage Month.
The event’s “deus ex machina” are five friends who have know each other since childhood: Luciano Volpe, Rob Grossi, Rino Spano, Lawrence La Pianta, and Gianni Creta. Stories of diverse lives, but common roots – Italian ones – and similar willingness to help youth look to the future with hope and confidence.
The initiative came about almost by chance. For about 10 years, Volpe, entrepreneur and part-time international marketing lecturer at York University, organized meetings with students from St. Michael’s High School – his former high school – and successful people from various sectors who were willing to tell the youth their stories, giving them a slice of reality from the actual working world. The idea came about when it was his turn to get in front of St. Michael’s students to tell his story, on invitation by his former professor Eddy Narducci.
“I realized that my words filled a void,” Volpe says, “that those youth had no idea what awaited for them once they left high school.” Ever since, Volpe has committed annually to organizing meetings in his former high school with famous people: Sergio Marchionne appeared at St. Michael’s in January.
“The idea is that of inspiring the youth by telling them stories of actual lives that they can’t find in books.” And it’s the same principle that is at the foundation of Inspire 2011, which Volpe, along with other entrepreneurs who have decided to take part in the event, would like to transform into a regular event, once or twice per year.
The famous people who will speak at Columbus Centre share not only fame, but also roots: they all have an Italian background.
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