The Arizona American Italian Club’s mission is to be a
resource to charitable organizations through the use
of our facilities, to provide financial support to
public charitable endeavors, and to heighten our
membership’s awareness of the importance of
community involvement.
A Letter from our president . . .
The Arizona American Italian Club was incorporated
in 1957, and for this almost fifty years, the goal and
purpose of our non-profit fraternal organization was
and still is to maintain the heritage of our proud roots.
Our doors are open to anyone who would like to join,
be they 100% Italian or not. Additionally, our doors
are likewise open to assisting various charitable
endeavors.
Our organization has made scholarships available
every year for as long as any of our current members
could remember. The scholarships are for colleges,
universities or trade schools and are available to those
students who have demonstrated higher academic
achievements, along with a need for financial
assistance. Scholarships are available to anyone,
whether related to a member or not.
Knowing full well that our club must give back to the
community, we have embraced a number of different
charities, some of which are listed here:
• The Civitans: an organization whose goal is to
aid mentally and physically challenged children and
adults. Some of our own members are on the board of
directors of the Civitans. In fact their board of
directors use our facilities year long.
• The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research
Foundation.
• The Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
• The Arizona Humane Society Mobile Adoption
Program.
• The Animal Benefit Club (A no kill shelter)
• Valley of the Sun Habilitation Center.
• We’ve sponsored fund raisers at the club for a
number of national charities, such as Muscular
Dystrophy.
• We host the joint Toys for Tots/Mike Klier’s
Karate Dojo karate tournament with all toys going to
the U.S. Marine sponsored Toys for Tots foundation.
• St. Mary’s Food Bank
• Various United States veteran’s organizations:
+ Disabled American Veterans
+ Operation Freedom Bird (all donations go to
providing airline tickets for Vietnam veterans to visit
the Washington D.C. wall memorial.)
+ The Navy Family Support Staff.
• The Rotary club and the One to One Tutor
(Kids are Stars)
• The 100 Club, which helps injured Phoenix Police
Officers and Firefighters ands their families.
• The Arizona National Guard Retired
Association.
In addition, our club has made available meeting rooms
and hall space for many groups, some of which are
listed here:
• The International Police Officers Association
(IPA)
• The 1013 Club, which is a national organization
of retired New York City Police Officers.
• The Roadrunner Schuetzenverein Club, which is
a German social and competitive air rifle club.
• The Republican Club.
• The Democratic Club.
• Retired Delta Airlines employees.
• The Federal Law Enforcement Officer’s
Association (FLEOA).
• Mountain Shadow Chapter (Arizona Bikers
Association Towards Education).
• A Lithuanian Dance Troupe.
• The Teamsters local.
• A business networking organization.
• We’ve hosted annual Easter & Christmas parties
for children & seniors.
As evidenced by the lists above, it is apparent that
our club has stayed active in helping the community. If
you have a favorite charity and would like to use our
facilities, rent free, it will be our pleasure to help.
We’ve had bingo at the club for well over 30 years,
and as recently as of October 2003, the Arizona
American Italian Club, was recognized by the Bingo
Enterprise Management national magazine as the
number one bingo hall in Arizona that contributes to
different charities. We are additionally proud to say
that throughout North America, our club was one of
only 10 such bingo halls so recognized. We’ve been
aggressive in helping the community, either locally or
nationally, and are committed to continue in the same
vein.
We’ve been in the valley for almost 50 years, and we’
ve demonstrated over all that time that we have our
community priorities in the right order. We help as
much as we can under sometimes very strained
economic times.
Thank you for your time, and I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Gene Rossi, President
Arizona American Italian Club
