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June 2 - June 9, 2002 |
Seventy and still counting
The Famee Furlane Club in Woodbridge hosts a week-long celebration
By Mariella Policheni
Originally Published: 2002-05-26
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Famee Furlane president Luigi Cambini
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Week-long celebrations at the Famee Furlane Club of Toronto continue to May 26. A painting exhibition, a display of embroideries, sophisticated food prepared by chef Silvio Di Giusto, and a presentation of the best Friulian wines: Friuli will be all around, as 70 years is an age deserving respect.
"At first, Famee Furlane was called Società di Mutuo Soccorso (Mutual Aid Society)," explains Luigi Gambin, 55, who has been chairing the organization for the past three years. "At the time, in the Thirties, Friulian immigrants faced obvious financial dire straits. They got organized so that a common fund could help them out in case of need such as funerals, medical exams and so on."
Many years have past, and Famee Furlane, now numbering 650 members across the GTA, has managed to help fellow Friulians even outside of Canada.
"The greatest action of solidarity happened on the occasion of the earthquake of '76, but we have repeatedly shown the generosity of our people," adds Gambin, who has been in Canada since 1966 and is now the owner of a Toronto construction company.
The Friulian community in Canada worked hard from day one, and in order to have a meeting place built their own venue. "This building at 7065 Islington Avenue in Woodbridge has been ours since 1975. Thirteen years ago we built the Friuli Centre, a senior home, and now we have another project," Gambin notes with pride, "a long-term care facility with 168 beds. The fundraising campaign has already been launched. The government approved our project and we hope to begin construction within the end of this year."
Friulians never stop, and their ranks include illustrious industrialists and politicians such as Sergio Marchi and the late Senator Peter Bosa, the Del Zotto brothers, Primo De Luca and Tiberio Mascherin.
"They are only some of the Friulians who have managed to emerge in Canadian society," notes Gambin with obvious pride. "I daresay that tenacity and parsimony, the will to give their children something more, is innate in Friulians, a people who had to struggle through the centuries against many invasions and tragedies of all sorts. People hardened by difficulties."
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