POINTers IN PERSON REPORT
Chapter #10-Texas, Central Texas/Austin
Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley (# 1653)
Lin ONOFRIO Brinkman (# 1388) opened the monthly POINTers In Person meeting at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, May 22, 2002 at the Round Rock Library with 15 members and 1 guest attending.
Lin thanked Jim & Virginia MACRI Gerick #2730), Joe and Marie MASTRANGELO (#2614), Don & Shirley VILLONI (#3985), Angie Clark and Bill Brinkman for volunteering their time to help at the May 11 Red Cross International Festival at which thirty-six countries were represented. She passed out Fiesta flyers from the ICA.
Lin showed a photo of her great uncle, ANTHONY DI REINZO at his wedding in Connecticut. She mentioned an article about Family Roots in the June issue of Martha Stewart Magazine.
Carol MAINA Roam (#4623) is working on our new website, and Jim and Virginia Gerick are preparing a new member directory.
Members planning to attend the POINT Conference in Salt Lake City are Marilyn MANISCALCO Henley, Pat Oxley (#3713), Joe and Marie MASTRANGELO, Louis and Kay SCOPEL, Carol MAINA Roam and Don and Shirley VILLONI.
We dispensed with our regular meeting and welcomed guest LAURA SABATINO (# 4256) from Wallingford, Connecticut, who was in Austin on a business trip. Laura is the current secretary of the Italian-American Historical Society of Connecticut, a POINT member and is starting a PIP chapter in Connecticut, which would be part of the IAHS of CT.
Before arriving at the meeting, Marilyn, Pat and Carol took Laura to supper at El Arroyo, a local Tex-Mex restaurant. Laura presented Lin with handmade beaded American and Italian flag pins, which she sells to raise money for the 9/11 families. She relayed the history of the Connecticut IAHS and the Italian resources available at the Ethnic Heritage Center, on the campus of the Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven http://www.southernct.edu/departments/ehc/ .
Laura also gave us a photo presentation from her laptop computer and played oral histories that she records directly to her computer, telling us how she uses these at family reunions. Laura is currently researching how to load videotapes with sound onto computers. Virginia Gerick, who is originally from New Haven, CT, discovered that she knew some of Laura's family members.
Arrangements were discussed to take Laura to Reale's Restaurant, a family owned local Italian restaurant in Austin, on her return trip in June.
Next meeting is a potluck luncheon on Saturday, June 22 from 1:30 - 4:30 at the Round Rock Library.