Thanks to everybody!! We did it!!

On June 9th Maria Filice, author and food stylist of Breaking Bread in L’Aquila, publisher, Food and Fate Publishing (imprint of Telos Press Publishing) made a donation towards the construction of a playground for primary and secondary school students in Rocca di Mezzo. Using the net profits from her cookbook, Filice donated $5,000. The playground is dedicated to the memory of Filice’s late husband, Paul Piccone.

The official ceremony for receipt of the donation took place at 11am in Viale Giovanne Minozzi, where Filice presented a check to Emilio Nusca, mayor of Rocca di Mezzo, Carlo Benedetti, President of Consiglio Comunale of the City of L’Aquila, and the school’s principal Claudia Scipioni. Mayor Nusca is also the coordinator among mayors in the L’Aquila region who are responsible for reconstruction after the earthquake.

For those who wish to visit, Rocca di Mezzo is a small town about 15 kilometers from Celano with approximately 2,000 inhabitants. During the height of the summer tourist season, this population swells to 10,000. The town is situated atop a beautiful plateau among the highest mountains of the Abruzzo and the Appennini, about 30 kilometers from L’Aquila. As a smaller town, somewhat removed from the main destruction the April 2009 earthquake in the Abruzzo, Rocca di Mezzo has not received much help with reconstruction. Though the Protezione Civile rebuilt the school that is home to the primary and secondary students of Rocca di Mezzo as well as the nearby villages of Ovindoli and Rocca di Cambio, the playground has not yet been restored. With the donation, Filice hopes to fill this vital need.