For years, the Boston Red Sox opened the doors of Fenway Park to their Italian Celebration Night, a tradition born in collaboration with the Italian American Baseball Foundation and became one of the most followed theme nights of the MLB. But this year, Tuesday, June 30, something has changed: twelve organizations of the Italian and Italian community in Boston decided to join and present themselves in Fenway as a single, great group.
It all began in March, when Italy surprised the world of baseball with a historical race at the World Baseball Classic. “In Boston there are many Italian organizations, each with its own history and community,” says Nicole Cutrufo, Chapter Leader of Bocconi Alumni Boston, the local chapter of the association that brings together over 500 Bocconi graduates, one of the most prestigious business schools in Europe, and among the promoters of the initiative. “But the atmosphere of this evening in Fenway is really special, and it is something that needs to be lived together. ”
From an idea born among a few emails a movement has grown quickly: first 50 tickets, then 100, then over 140, to the point to force the organizers to expand the reservation several times and to earn the official recognition of the Red Sox as one of the most numerous groups present that evening.
For Mauro Di Buono, part of the Boston chapter leadership team of Bocconi Alumni and among the group organizers, the link between sport and community is no coincidence. “Sport has this unique ability to zero distances,” he explains. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve come to Boston as a student or if you’ve lived there for 20 years, if you work in finance or teach at the university: for one night we’re all ticking the same team and we feel part of the same story. ”
Among the first organizations to join were the Scuola Piccoli Italiani of Boston and PIB – Professionisti Italiani in Boston, two realities that represent different faces of the same community: on the one hand the families and children who grow Italian speaking away from Italy, on the other the professionals who in Boston have built their career without ever losing their roots. “For our families to participate in an evening like this means much more than a baseball game,” says Giovanni Abbadessa, of the Italian Small School of Boston. “It’s a way to show children that being Italian here in Boston is something alive, that celebrates together, not only something that is handed down in the house. ”
To witness the extent of this mobilization came also a direct recognition from the Red Sox: having passed the 100 participants, the group was invited to participate in the “Leader of the Pack”, the time of the pre-party ceremony in which the franchise recognizes on the field, before the beginning whistle, the most numerous groups present that evening in Fenway. In view of the game, the organizers will also find themselves, Saturday, June 28, for a more intimate moment: a meet & greet from I AM Books, the historic Italian American library in the heart of the North End, between a coffee and a few stories, before finding themselves all together on the sides of the Bleacher 43 of Fenway.
Here is a summary of the organizations that promoted together with us this evening:
Italian Heritage Month · NOIAW · Bocconi Alumni Boston · Boston Italian Women · Boston Italian Children’s School · Comites Boston · PIB · BU Italian Students Association · Harvard Italian Student Society · Italy Club at MIT Sloan · Italian Tufts Association · NUIC – Northeastern University Italian Club
L’articolo Boston prepares for a historic Italian Night in Fenway Park proviene da IlNewyorkese.
