Alumni Emeritus Lunch Goes Virtual

Alumnus Emeritus Lunch Goes Virtual Alumni Emeritus “Virtual Luncheon” held with 150 Brothers in Attendance—Making Lemonade out of a Pandemic!

BY MIKE IACOVELLI, THETA BETA ’81

The traditional Alumni Emeritus Luncheon is held each year at the National Convention in August. It attracts 50–60 people, of whom 15–20 are 50-year brothers. It is always a great event, loved by all in attendance.

With the 2020 Convention cancelled due to the pandemic, the Alpha Phi Delta Foundation did not want to let the year go by without recognizing our 50-year brothers. After a long debate, we decided to try a video conference. Zoom was selected, and we learned how to use its “Breakout Rooms, in Zoom parlance, “Chapter Reunion Rooms” in APD lingo.

Ten planning meetings later, including a “practice call” for any AE brothers who needed help with the technology, on Saturday, August 8, the Inaugural Virtual Ed Magliocco Memorial Alumni Emeritus Celebration was held, honoring the class of 1970.

For this event, we had 181 brothers RSVP, and roughly 150 brothers attended. We had representation from 25 chapters, and had 18 chapter ceunions. See www.apd.org/ae for the full list of RSVPs.

The reach of this event was amazing! From senior attendee Vince Tocci, who pledged Psi Chapter in 1943, to Robert Gregory (Mu Chapter) attending from Australia to Andrew Cozzolino (Beta Beta) attending from London, including a record 14 attendees from the honoree class of 1970, and six PNPs!

The event started off with a pre-meeting video about the fraternity, including era-specific chapter composites, along with some fraternity songs recorded by Vito DeSalvo (Psi) playing in the background. This was followed by a short program emceed by AE Chair Gary Van Schaften, with several speakers including PNP Nick Franki, Current National President Sal Flagiello, Foundation Chair Tony Carfang, and Foundation Director Emeritus Alex Franki. The following 1970 brothers RSVPed to this event and were recognized: Alan Baranowski, Beta Lambda ’70 Gary Milano, Beta Rho ’70 Lou Biacchi, Beta Rho ’70 Claude Neidlinger, Psi ’70 Kevin Chester, Beta Theta ’70 Joe Nunziata, Beta Sigma ’70 Tony DiGirolamo, Psi ’70 Bill Osuchowski, Beta Iota ’70 Tony Gallagher, Psi ’70 Jerry Smulski, Psi ’70 Joe Karpinski, Beta Rho ’70 Dale Whitney, Beta Theta ’70 James McKenna, Beta Sigma ’70 Neil Winston, Beta Iota ’70

After this the true fun began as the brothers were split into Chapter Reunion rooms where they shared stories, rekindled memories and made plans to stay in touch. Some chapters had close to 20 brothers attending and reminiscing, many were reunited after 50 years apart! The longest reunions lasted over two hours!

As terrible as this pandemic has been, we have found a wonderful way to engage our brotherhood, reunite people after 50 plus years, rekindle friendships, and recall distant memories with great friends.

The Foundation is planning a second Virtual Alumni Emeritus Celebration in February. We were able to bring together over 150 of our oldest and most cherished brothers in August, and will do it better and bigger in February. The technical team behind the scenes (Mike Iacovelli (Theta Beta), Rob DeVito (PNP Gamma Iota), and Ralph Parmegiani (BAC)) learned a lot doing this for the first time. Hopefully next time we won’t be haunted by a major hurricane preventing many brothers from attending due to power outage, Zoom blocking paths in from China preventing others from attending (believe it or not!), and other minor technical issues.

Please visit www.apd.org/foundation for more information on the APD Foundation. See www.apd.org/ae for additional information on past and future events for our 50+ year brothers!

Several brothers made comments on the experience:

Gaston Gianni (Beta Theta ’65): Thank you to all who worked to make the virtual zoom reunion a reality. I appreciate the update on the health of our Fraternity and the excellent work that is being done by the Brothers. I hope the success of this event encourages the Fraternity to have more in the future, perhaps quarterly or at least semi Annually. The break out by chapters was great. I had the opportunity to reconnect with three brothers from Beta Theta that I hadn’t seen for over 56 years. Also, meeting a brother who came after I had graduated. It was a great zoom call!

Mike Polito (Beta Sigma ’69): I found the session lively and loved the breakout sessions, it was fun to meet brothers from earlier and later times from our respective chapters. It was fun. I look forward to the next session and hopefully, we’ll get more participants.

Ken Richter (Delta ’52): The event was great. I liked being able to converse with other Delta brothers. I know at least one brother (Tony Pizzirusso) who couldn’t connect because of a power outage in his area of Long Island.

Len Farano (Eta ’56): Many thanks to all who made this terrific event possible. Special kudos to the wizard behind the curtain, Mike Iacovelli, who kept a huge group with many neophytes under control. Also a tip of the hat to Foundation Chairman Tony Carfang for a classy visit to each of the chapter breakout rooms. You all have proved that nothing stops APD from moving onward. I’m so proud to be a brother.

The Psi Chapter breakout room top and Beta Lambda room at bottom.

Rummaging through the National Archives #2

The Staten Island AC has their first official event post-quarantine with a pool party at the home of PNP Todd and Vanessa Cusato. They were presented with the plaque for 2019–2020 NYC/LI Outstanding Alumni Club. The group had a great time socializing again.

The Pittsburgh Alumni Club held its summer golf outing August 21 at Willowbrook Country Club. Six undergrads from Psi Chapter played along with eight alumni. Undergrad Shea Moffa was the medalist shooting 73, one over par.

APD Cares – COVID-19 Program Update

The response from our brotherhood has been overwhelming with approximately 150 brothers (many first timers) contributing to the APD Cares Covid19 fund. This allowed the Foundation to increase the automatic grant level to families and also provide for additional support in several cases with significant financial hardship. The APD Cares fund is strong and will continue to help during this pandemic as well as any future natural disasters. APD Cares will continue the legacy of APD Brothers helping Brothers in 2020 and beyond.

Special thanks to the brothers of Gannon University who established the Beta Rho APD Cares Memorial Fund Honoring Joseph R. Sacco, Beta Rho ’73 who passed away in May (see obituary).

The 1920 charter of Delta Chapter was recently found, restored and framed in Central Office. It is the oldest known existing charter in the fraternity. 2020 marks the centennial of Delta Chapter. The Alpha Phi Delta National Archives is fortunate to have in its possession the original Delta Charter signed by the 2nd Grand Consul, Paul J. Salvatore and the 2nd Grand Tribune, Anthony J. Armore (who was also the 1st Grand Pro-Consul, or National Vice President).

This charter was issued by the Grand Council at Columbia University on April 30, 1920 to Delta Chapter at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. It may be the actual first charter ever issued by Alpha Phi Delta. A charter for Alpha Chapter was issued retroactively in 1924, 10 years after its founding, and is signed by 6th Grand Consul, Louis J. Rinaldi. The National Archives has a copy of that charter, the original is in the possession of the American Italian Heritage Museum in Albany, N.Y. It is unlikely that Beta Chapter of Columbia University ever had a charter issued and the existence of a possible Gamma Charter for Yale University is unknown. So, this Delta Charter is just another fraternity treasure that would warrant a visit to our National Archives. —by Ron Sme, National Historian

The Executive Committee of the Epsilon Gamma Alumni Association gather this summer. Shown here, left to right, are the officers for the current year: Brian Cutaia, Epsilon Gamma ’07 (Historian), Jared Grabina, Epsilon Gamma ’12 (Secretary), Anthony Gulli, Epsilon Gamma ’13 (Vice President), Matthew Dixon, Epsilon Gamma ’15 (President), Mitch Serraino, Epsilon Gamma ’12 (Sergeant at Arms), George Romero, Epsilon Gamma ’12 (Chaplain), and John Femoyer, Epsilon Kappa ’15 (Treasurer).