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FALL 2020 Italian American Digest
NIAF to Honor Dr. Anthony Fauci
in 2020 with Leonardo da Vinci Award
The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is
proud to announce that NIAF’s prestigious 2020 Leonardo
da Vinci Award for Leadership in Health and Science will be
Built in 1908, inside the Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church,
you will find info. & artifacts related to Italian/Sicilian
families in the area.
Exhibits: Altar & Stained Glass Statues from Mater
Dolorosa Church, Original confessional, Handmade clay
oven, Italian veterans exhibit, Photos of area Italian
businesses and events, Italian festival posters & more!
INDEPENDENCE ITALIAN
CULTURAL MUSEUM
Tours by Appointment | 10:30 to 2:30 pm Saturdays
524 Pine St.
Independence, LA 70443
C A L L 9 8 5 - 8 7 8 - 3 7 7 3 ( N O A D M I S S I O N F E E )
Courtesy of the National Italian American Foundation
presented to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and
a member of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force. The
award will be presented in October 2020 on behalf of the
National Italian American Foundation’s Board of Directors—
to recognize Dr. Fauci’s years of extraordinary service to our
country and for his work to help our nation meet the challenge
of COVID-19.
Dr. Fauci, whose grandparents were Italian immigrants from
Sciacca, Sicily, and Naples, is very proud of his Italian American
heritage and credits his heritage with the values that guide him
today,” said NIAF Chairman Patricia de Stacy Harrison. “He
was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Stephen and Eugenia Fauci who
together ran the neighborhood pharmacy. He recalls Sunday
dinners after Catholic mass fondly: ‘My very
best memories as a child are of the house
being full with aunts, cousins and uncles
with a table of good food.’ We look forward
to honoring Dr. Fauci for his leadership, his
extraordinary contribution to lifesaving health
research and to celebrating our shared Italian
American heritage and values with him in
October.
Dr. Fauci will be presented with an original
sculpture of Leonardo da Vinci, created and
executed by Dante Mortet, a sixth-generation
sculptor whose family began making chalices
for the Pope 120 years ago. Mortet’s artwork is
created in his studio in the heart of Rome.
In honor of Dr. Fauci, The National
Italian Foundation will create an annual
scholarship for an Italian or Italian American
researcher in the area of infectious disease.