By Mark Hallum
Comitato Festa Di Maria SS Del Romitello De Borgetto is more than just a mouthful. The East Elmhurst social club, founded in 1979 by Steve Giambrone, 81, has been a slice of home for him and other Sicilians in the neighborhood who came to the United States from Borgetto, a mountain town about a half-hour drive south of Palermo.
But now, with membership diminishing and a lack interest from the younger generation, Giambrone, a retired carpenter, is closing up the club and donating the remaining $85,000 in the club’s coffer to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Nobody wanted to take over,” Giambrone said in an interview. “My wish was when it was over to give the money to St. Jude— do something for society”
“My family’s so proud of my father and the hard work that he’s done,” Rita Roscigno, Giambrone’s daughter, said. “Ever since I was a child, I’ve always seen him dedicate his spare time to the Blessed Mother, the club and serving his community — keeping the traditions alive from his town in Borgetto, Sicily. It’s a very tight-knit group of people. They all came here from Borgetto and they’re still very close with each other.”
Giambrone came to the United States in 1957, but separated from the original Borgetto social club in the late 1960s, according to his daughter. He wanted to create a club centered more around Catholic traditions specific to his region of Sicily, she said, believing the social aspect of the club should not take a back seat to religion.
The name of the club is a reference to the town’s patron saint, the Madonna of Our Lady of Sorrows.
The Borgetto club started by Giambrone would emerge as a community staple for processions and religious observances in connection with the local parish, St. Luke’s.
“They meet every Sunday at church and they still follow all the traditions together,” Roscigno said. There is now another club in the area similar to her father’s which has taken up the responsibility of carrying on the traditions, she said.
Membership in the Borgetto club started with about 35, Roscigno said, but it has dwindled to only two, her father and a neighborhood friend, Vito Nicolosi.
The two men met last week in the backyard of his house on 73rd Street to present two officials from St. Jude’s with the check for $85,000 — all the funds that were left over in the club’s bank account. They did not want to keep any of it for themselves, Giambrone said. They wanted it to go for a good cause. Giambrone said they hoped the contribution to St. Jude would help it conduct research to improve care for sick children and bring them one step closer to their goals.
Among the items the club is leaving to others is a wood and glass tomb that carries a figure of Jesus Christ in the Good Friday procession. Giambrone made this tomb by hand, she said.
The Lady of Sorrow is a tall statue of the Blessed Mother in a black velvet cape with gold trim that Roscigno’s mother had helped sew together.
Giambrone ran the club with Vice President Nicolosi, Secretary Tommy De Vito, Treasurer Rosario D’Amico and Co-Treasurer Vincezo D’Amico, whose names all appear on the $85,000 check.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
