The Mascalzone Latino Sailing School is renewing for the fourth year running its links with the club’s most active in social activities in Boston (USA), taking part again this year in the PIB Sailing Championship from June 27’s to July 5, a busy week of racing on various classes, organised in turn by the three clubs involved in the Bay: the MIT Sailing Pavillon, the Courageous Sailing Center and the Community Boating Center.
It’s an event made-to-measure for two students from the outskirts of Naples that suffer enormous social problems and have a very high rate of criminality and degradation, who have found a refuge in the Mascalzone Latino Sailing School to build for themselves and adolescence based on healthy principles of sailing and seagoing life. Accompanied as in 2015 by school director Antonietta De Falco, the students chosen this year were: Armando Pelliccia from Afragola and Francesca Falanga from Scampia, two very young students that the sailing school has great faith in. Initiatives like these are strongly desired by Vincenzo Onorato, because they are great formative experience for the kids and also mark their social requalification, bringing them into contact with excellent sailing clubs and academic instructors of an international level.
Hosting them this year will be Frank Facella, a dentist, and Giovanni Abbadessa, a medical research and co-founder of the PIB. Their hospitality is also guaranteed by other members of the PIB (Chiara Vannucci and Antonella Pirone, University researchers), and by the Saraceni family who will organise various visits and activities and accompany the kids.
The programme of races has three main appointments, on Tuesday, June 28 at 5:30 PM at the MIT Sailing Center, Thursday, June 30 at 6 PM at the Courageous Sailing Center and Friday, July 1 at 10 o’clock at the Community Boating. The prizegiving ceremony will be held at the “Courageous” on Saturday, July 2 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM.
The American experience will be centred on a comparison with the American counterparts, but also with a voyage of discovery of the excellences of the territory, including the famous universities of MIT and Harvard, and other cultural and social activities proposed by members and friends of the PIB, Professionisti Italiani a Boston, including meeting Neapolitans who emigrated long ago. And this year the group of young Mascalzones will have the chance to see 4 July, Independence Day.
Every day of their stay is organised with great care and attention by the Boston hosts: on the three mornings of the days of racing they will be with the Saraceni family to explore Boston and its surroundings, while on the other days a full programme sees educational and entertainment visits, to the science Museum in the aquarium, meeting up with families and young kids of Neapolitan origin, activities and trips outside the city with members of the PIB and Frank Facella, and finally lunch with the Italian Consul in Boston the day of their return.
The event is sponsored by Frank Facella’s Danfort Dental, Stefano Barbiero’s Italimport Inc. And by PIB Italian Saturday School.