The Power of Pasta!

photo by Patrice Goldberg

When Bepi of Sunset Gondola was preparing to host the US Gondola Nationals this year, I called him up and asked if he would like to support Caterina's Club once again.  
We had adopted the charity when we hosted Nationals in Newport two years earlier, they are a great and worthy cause, and Bepi agreed.

 photo by Steve Atkins

When we race gondolas, we aren't in a position to raise money. 
In fact most of our guys are students, 
who scrape together tip money in order to make it to Nationals.

We don't have money to give, but we do have something else: visibility.
Put a sign on a gondola, and people will see it.
Get that gondola in a once-a-year race, and people will photograph it.

 

photo by Steve Atkins

Caterina's Club is dedicated to feeding children in need.
Chef Bruno Serato, who owns the Anaheim White House restaurant, 
has served over two million meals through the program.
I have a huge amount of respect for the man.
When he wrote a book about it, called "The Power of Pasta" I wanted to support that as well...and then I realized how perfect it would be to have those words posted on the bow of an Italian boat, being rowed by men and women who are often truly "powered by pasta".

photo by Steve Atkins 

 Special thanks to Alberto Bozzo at Emilio Ceccato 

for making us look good as we were powered by pasta.