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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-20 Daily Xml
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FESTA DI SAN GIUSEPPE

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:37): I would like to speak today about the Festa Di San Giuseppe Salisbury, which is held each year on the weekend around 20 March. This year, it was held on Sunday at the St Joseph's Italian Community Centre in my electorate, as it has been over a number of years. Roughly 5,000 people from the Italian community in the north of Adelaide attend this yearly festival to recognise the patron saint of a local community.

The St Joseph executive committee for the last three or four years has been a very stable group of people who have done remarkable things. In fact, this community centre and hall, which is the hub of Italian life in the north of Adelaide, has been largely funded and built from community endeavours.

I would like to place on the record my thanks to Sam Garreffa, Grace Garreffa, Grace Caruso (a good friend of mine), Rocco Carpentieri, Joe Furina, Tony Desteno, and Tony Polimeni. We also have the fantastic spiritual leadership of Sister Elda leading the local community, assisted by Gino Santoro, Francesco Noto, Grace Morgante, Giovanna Garreffa, Immacolata Marafioti, Angela Caruso, Vince Verrilli, Carmine Noto, Janice Carzo, Dominic Carzo, and Mario Spano. Without these fantastic people, this remarkable tradition in our area would not happen every year.

I sponsor the local group quite regularly with raffle prizes, and this year I was very pleased to be able to donate a very large ham, which looked delicious; I am sure the people who won it on Sunday would be very happy. This community event really creates an opportunity for the local community, together with their grandchildren, to partake of pasta, trippa, pizzas, zeppole and gelati.

There is always a good band, music and fun and games for the children to participate in. It is often sponsored by many local businesses in the area, and I was pleased to sponsor it again this year, with entertainment, food, and support for the local community. So, thank you to the committee of San Guiseppe for running yet another wonderful event and I look forward to attending it next year in conjunction with the mass that is led by Father Antonio Paganoni from St Augustine's Church at Salisbury.

Another event I would like to speak about briefly is a book launch that I attended in my area with the veteran community, particularly the Vietnam veterans in the north of Adelaide, at the John Harvey Gallery at the City of Salisbury with Mayor Gillian Aldridge. It was the launch of Dr Glen Edwards' book Beyond Dark Clouds and, while I attended this book launch last year in my own local RSL patch of Two Wells, it was a pleasure to come down to Salisbury, which is within my area, and talk to the veterans in that area, particularly the Vietnam Veterans Association, Northern Sub Branch, Mick Lennon and his friends from Salisbury RSL, and the Two Wells RSL.

Dr Glen Edwards is a truly remarkable man, and he deserves a grievance in his own right. Having gone through military service, he has risen and self-educated himself to a remarkable level and is now an expert in post-traumatic stress disorders and has written two books. The most recent one, Beyond Dark Clouds is the follow-up to his first book, which records the stories of Vietnam veterans, their families and children and the impact that this war had on them and continues to have on them.

One of the reasons I raise this today is that it is particularly relevant seeing as I have Edinburgh in my electorate. With the last rotations of people coming back from the Middle East and Afghanistan into my community and me seeing people in blue and khaki regularly coming to our local schools and picking up their children, the message of these veterans is equally relevant today as it was when they came back from Vietnam all those years ago when I was a child.

So, Dr Glen Edwards' book is a remarkable thing. He has gone on to advise the World Health Organisation and assist people who have suffered trauma from the tsunami in Japan and earthquakes in other places around the world and, in due course I will make a speech about Glen and his remarkable efforts. I recommend strongly that people get the chance to read Beyond Dark Clouds. It is a remarkable book, and it is a story from a remarkable man.

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