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# 70 •OCTOBER 19 , 2015
tion for our people. Their new entity
was meant to be a collection of self-identifying leaders, and not a membership or fraternal or community organization.
From this vision, the Italian American
ci’s commitment to dreaming big.
That September, the then Italian American Foundation (IAF), hosted its first
Bicentennial Tribute Dinner honoring
the 29 Italian Americans who served in the 94th Congress, the Italian
American Congressional Delegation. Hailed as “a landmark in the history of Italian
Americans,” more than 2,000
people packed into the ballroom of the Washington Hilton – including former President Gerald Ford, President
Jimmy Carter, and Vice-President Walter Mondale – to
see NIAF’s first-ever Special
Achievement Awards presented to Dominick Daniels,
John Pastore, Peter W. Rodino Jr., and John Sirica. An
unscheduled surprise award
was presented to Rep. Frank Annunzio
for his ”untiring efforts” as Chairman of
the Congressional Steering Committee of the Tribute Dinner. With the ballroom abuzz with Italian pride, Chairman Paulucci told the guests “tonight,
we representing the Italian American
community of this country are truly visible – you see the strength, you see
the influence, you see the recognition
of a unified community of Italian Americans. We are no longer a sleeping
giant.” Little did he know how right he
was!
Foundation officially opened the doors to its first office in downtown Washington, D.C., on April 1, 1976. From
the original core of 19 voices, the organization’s advocates and participants quickly grew to include some
of the most important Italian American names in Washington, D.C., and
throughout the nation at large. Prominent among this group of accomplished men and women was renowned
entrepreneur Jeno Paulucci, famous
for his creation and leadership of the
Chun King and Jeno’s Pizza fast food
chains. Paulucci would serve as the organizations Founding Chairman, and One of Paulucci’s initial ideas in order
a great deal of the earliest vision for to raise the funds necessary to operaNIAF’s future scope is due to Pauluc- te an organization like this was to crea-
WE THE ITALIANS | 27
www.wetheitalians.com