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According to its statutory purposes, through which it aims to promote and conduct initiatives of any nature in the field of sports but also leisure activities and tourism, cultural, recreational and social, the “Foundation Varaldo Di Pietro – Mecenate dello Sport “has planned a series of activities carried out the year 2018.
The first of these consisted of support for Special Olympics International, the organization that deals with training programs and sports competitions for the integration of people with mental disabilities. On the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Special Olympics International, which took place in Chicago from 17 to 22 July, the Foundation donated fonds to allow disabled athletes to participate in sporting events.
The Foundation’s initiative is in according with the collaboration already started with Special Olympics Italy and internationally.
The most important event promoted by the association is the “Mecenate dello Sport” award, which aims to award prizes to entrepreneurs, managers, athletes and sports representatives who have distinguished themselves for having contributed actively to the growth of the sport and its most important and universal values. In recent editions, the event has grown considerably, taking on an international dimension, and the goal is to maintain a very high level both in terms of the award winning subject and the organization and the media response of the event. The prize aims to enhance the true and more genuine values of sport understood as a metaphor of life and teaching for the youngest, in which sacrifice, commitment, loyalty, respect for others and rules, the competitive tension as a stimulus for achieving important results, can represent valuable models of reference. The award ceremony took place on October 18, in the Salone of Honor of the Coni in Rome. The award was given to Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna representing the Maison of which she is president.
On 2 August the Foundation participated in the organization of a concert in the island of Ponza, with the Italian American rocker Joe D’Urso and his band. It was a particular initiative, open to the public and non-profit, which renewed the link between the Pontine island and the artist, who has its origins in Ponza where their ancestors lived.
Another activity planned by the Foundation for 2018 was held in the summer, on the date of 14 July: the evening concert, in which the singer Peppino Di Capri celebrated his 60 years of career and paid tribute to the maestro Orazio Di Pietro, an unforgettable musician who taught and loved music to entire generations of Latina, at the same time representing an artist very appreciated both in Italy and internationally. This activity took another important moment, when on 7 December the Foundation promoted the naming of the Sala del Circolo Cittadino to the maestro Orazio Di Pietro. On this occasion a plaque was discovered and a concert was held.
In October 2018, the Foundation took part in another important event: the inauguration in Latina of the first monument, in Italy and in Europe, dedicated to sports “fair play“.
In October 2019 the Monument to Inclusion commissioned by our Foundation and created by the artist Giovanna Campoli with the intent to commemorate and celebrate the figure of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics, was inaugurated at the San Marco Park in Latina (ITALY), ten years after her death.
The ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Latina Damiano Coletta, the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, the President of the “Varaldo Di Pietro” Foundation Giovanni Di Pietro, Samuel Kennedy Shriver, Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s nephew representing the Kennedy Shriver family and the Vice President of Special Olympics Italia, Alessandro Palazzotti.
