Roma Club salutes founders

Mark Ribble, Leamington Post

Leamington's Roma Club is celebrating 50 years and recently, a group consisting mostly of the daughters of the founding fathers held an appreciation dinner for the founders of the Roma Club on October 8.

No less than 174 people are on the original founders list and the hope of the dinner was to help spark in interest in the younger generation as the Roma Club's founders continue to get older.

In 1961, at the Village Inn, then known as the Auto Stop Hotel, a family party sparked a debate about the need for the members of the Italian community to have a venue of their own, and thus the dream was born.

Each founding member put up $1000 of their own money to get things started.

They procured property on Seacliff Drive in a warehouse, where Gino DiMenna was elected as their first president. The current president is Frank Gabriele.

About 200 people showed up for the event, which also featured the Honourable Eugene Whelan as guest speaker. He was presented with a special plaque as an honourary Roma member for his support and help in the early years with getting the club up and running.

About 50 surviving founding members attended the event.