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Englishman In Malta - English man living in Malta for 20 years makes informative videos. Posts frequently! Must see!
Spotlight Events
We like to shine a "Spotlight" on special moments or achievements that are brought to our
attention involving members of the Maltese-American community!
attention involving members of the Maltese-American community!
2023 Maltese Citizenship Day Ceremony
A Citizenship Ceremony was held on Tuesday, 12/11/23 for newly granted Maltese Citizens from our area. The venue was San Francisco City Hall. To welcome the recipients, Louis Vella introduced the distinguished guest, Maltese Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Godfrey C. Xuereb who traveled from Washington DC. The recipients were given a warm welcome. Dr Xuereb provided a rich talk about Malta's history, as well a discussion about Malta's role as a member of the EU and the world stage. He expressed his wish that recipients would be knowledgeable about Malta's history and culture and also be good proponents and representatives of Malta to the world.
New Citizens were presented certificates and a beautiful book on Maltese culture and history. Each recipient was given the opportunity to have a photo taken while they received their citizenship.
After the ceremony, everyone moved to the Mayor's outer office for a wonderful spread of Maltese pastries and pastizzi. Everyone had an opportunity to meet and chat with Dr Xuereb. It was a fine event and celebration to welcome new Maltese citizens.
New Citizens were presented certificates and a beautiful book on Maltese culture and history. Each recipient was given the opportunity to have a photo taken while they received their citizenship.
After the ceremony, everyone moved to the Mayor's outer office for a wonderful spread of Maltese pastries and pastizzi. Everyone had an opportunity to meet and chat with Dr Xuereb. It was a fine event and celebration to welcome new Maltese citizens.
A New Home For The Presepju
The "Friends of the Maltese Presepju" (Artistic Nativity) have very carefully, skillfully and delicately set up the 2023 Nativity at the Maltese American Social Club in South San Francisco.
This artistic Nativity is indeed a magnificent museum piece of art work. It was designed and built in Malta and it depicts folklore scenes from Malta. For over a year, it was exhibited at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. When it was time for the Nativity to be shipped back to Malta, the Maltese Community in the San Francisco Bay Area teamed up, pulled together and successfully managed to change its course and instead of traveling Eastbound it was to the West Coast. We are happy and proud to say that the Nativity is located permanently in the San Francisco Bay Area instead. It was in full display at the Maltese Club in South San Francisco.
On Sunday, December 17th, Fr. Charles, pastor of St. Elizabeth's Church in San Francisco visited the Nativity and give his blessings on its official viewing opening. Everyone was welcome to attend the event.
This artistic Nativity is indeed a magnificent museum piece of art work. It was designed and built in Malta and it depicts folklore scenes from Malta. For over a year, it was exhibited at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. When it was time for the Nativity to be shipped back to Malta, the Maltese Community in the San Francisco Bay Area teamed up, pulled together and successfully managed to change its course and instead of traveling Eastbound it was to the West Coast. We are happy and proud to say that the Nativity is located permanently in the San Francisco Bay Area instead. It was in full display at the Maltese Club in South San Francisco.
On Sunday, December 17th, Fr. Charles, pastor of St. Elizabeth's Church in San Francisco visited the Nativity and give his blessings on its official viewing opening. Everyone was welcome to attend the event.
The MHA Is The Recipient Of The 2023 Maltese Cross Foundation Award
Remembering Our Loved Ones Mass
St. Dunstan's Church, Millbrae, California
On Saturday, 11/11/23, the Maltese Cross Foundation (MCF) of California held its 25th Annual “Remembering Our Loved Ones” event at St. Dunstan’s Church in Millbrae. Following Mass, there was a solemn rose ceremony and members of the MCF read out the names of hundreds of members of the Maltese community who have passed away in honor of their memory. Louis Vella, as President of the MCF, gave a moving address describing the foundation’s history and charitable efforts, including support of causes such as student cultural scholarships in the SF Bay Area, “I’d-Dar Tal-Providenza” for needy children and “Dar Tal-Kleru” homes for retired priests in Malta.
During the celebration, Louis presented the 2023 Maltese Cross Foundation Award for charitable work, volunteerism or other acts of kindness dedicated to help our broader community. The recipient of this year’s event was the Maltese Heritage Association. We were presented with a beautiful award of Mdina glass that was designed and brought over from Malta for the occasion.
During the celebration, Louis presented the 2023 Maltese Cross Foundation Award for charitable work, volunteerism or other acts of kindness dedicated to help our broader community. The recipient of this year’s event was the Maltese Heritage Association. We were presented with a beautiful award of Mdina glass that was designed and brought over from Malta for the occasion.
2023 Carpenter Elementary School UNity Fair
My family and I were honored to represent MALTA in this year's UNity Fair at
Carpenter Elementary School in Studio City, California!
Special thanks to Paul, Tara, Harlow and Westley Ghiglieri for making our day so wonderful!
Carpenter Elementary School in Studio City, California!
Special thanks to Paul, Tara, Harlow and Westley Ghiglieri for making our day so wonderful!
Maltese American Youth Alliance
Announcing the formation of a new Maltese Youth group, MAYA, which stands for Maltese American Youth Alliance. A new member of this organization is Michaela Azzopardi Battaglia. Michaela attended a Virtual Youth Form and wrote to tell us about her amazing experience.
Dear Maltese American Social Club Members,
I had an amazing opportunity to participate in the Virtual Youth Forum hosted by the Government of Malta and the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade (Directorate for Consular Services and Maltese Living Abroad). The Virtual Youth Forum took place on September 17th 2022 and Maltese youth from all over the world participated in this wonderful event. The Virtual Youth Forum focused on three discussion topics: identity, culture and language.
In my small breakout group, we discussed how identity comes from the things which we interact with on a daily basis and accept internally as part of what makes us who we are. This
knowledge allows us to understand our place in the world. We also discussed the life-values imparted by our grandparents and parents, which made up our sense of Maltese identity. Values of practicing humility, tolerance, compassion, and gratitude are all values we feel we inherited from our Maltese roots, despite not living in Malta or understanding the Maltese language. These elements supervened and thus continue to create a strong sense of the Maltese identity even abroad. Other than these values, we mentioned Malta’s place in the Mediterranean as another major contributing factor of the Maltese identity. Particularly the Maltese temperate climate and the impression of a more laid back life in Malta, alongside its food, language, religion and religious cultural practices; however, we wondered about the future of such Maltese traditional elements. For instance, Maltese clubs which are a meeting place for the Maltese diaspora groups abroad, are now becoming less and less common as the older generations are dying out. This also is the case for other practices including ‘għana’, village feasts, and ‘boċċi’ playing.
Next, my small breakout group discussed culture. Maltese cuisine was the most prevalent element discussed. We mentioned that we are still able to include Maltese food in our menu (some at least once a month or frequently as once a week). A participant from Canada noted that whilst the Maltese diaspora in Toronto Canada had easier access to buying frozen Maltese foods, these were not so easily available in other parts of Canada, a point which might inspire some commerce by Maltese service providers to these areas. We mentioned our experience of visiting ‘festas’ dedicated to patron saints with our Maltese family-members, and remembering the tastes, ‘banda’ and fire-work sounds, special lighted streets with banners, and feelings which went alongside these experiences.
Lastly, the Maltese language was discussed, with an interest in trying to learn Maltese; however, most mentioned that we encountered several limitations when trying to learn the language, mainly because participants whose parents do not speak Maltese at home, never got exposure to the language and are not able to practice it. Thus, we suggested the creation of a Maltese language society or the possibility of organizing language events in collaboration with Maltese Consulates themselves. These could help people who are already trying to learn the language as well as attract interest from others. It would also be a good idea to create some way for participants in the Youth Forum and others who wish to join, to stay in touch with each other electronically, such as through Facebook or other social media groups where discussion, organization of events or language courses could be set up These initiatives could help Maltese living abroad get a clearer understanding of what it is to be Maltese by learning the Maltese language.
I am so glad I got to participate in the Virtual Youth Forum. I had the opportunity to meet more Maltese youth from around the world and feel more connected than I ever have before. I truly enjoyed the Maltese topics, meeting more Maltese youth, and finding an action plan on how to connect with more Maltese youth as well as discuss the future of Malta. I love that the Maltese community is coming together to unite the Maltese youth and promote inclusivity, gain perspective, and provide more resources abroad.
Thank you,
Michaela Battaglia (Azzopardi)
2022 WINTER OLYMPICS
Snowboarder Jenise Spiteri represents Malta!
Snowboarder Jenise Spiteri takes a break from training in Switzerland to speak to Adriana Bishop about how she achieved her dream to represent Malta at the Winter Olympics…What is your dream? What’s stopping you from making it come true? Whatever it is, it cannot get more extraordinary than representing Malta at the Winter Olympics and that is exactly what Maltese-American snowboarder Jenise Spiteri has managed to achieve.
But do not think her journey to the Olympics was all sunshine and fluffy snow in picture postcard scenery.
By some happy coincidence that was indeed the setting of our interview in the Swiss ski resort of Laax a couple of weeks ago.
It was a welcome reprieve for Jenise after a tortuous decade of long hours of training in sub-zero temperatures, competitions all over the world, expensive lift passes and coaching sessions, so expensive that she spends several months of the year sleeping in a freezing van to save on rent and often hikes up the mountain carrying her snowboard on her back to skip paying for the ski-lift in order to have enough money to pay for a coach.
“It sucks,” she concedes. “But there’s nothing I can do about it. It makes me stronger and tougher.”
When you want something badly enough, you do whatever it takes to achieve it. And Jenise wanted this very badly indeed.
As we sit down on her upturned snowboard on the side of the piste I am immediately struck by the sheer strength of will in this petite 29-year old woman with blue-green plaits and wide, captivating smile.
She had been training for six hours already that day, alone, with no coach or anyone to give her feedback or motivational pep-talks.
“I talk to myself,” she says with a wry smile.
The halfpipe at Laax is considered to be the best in the world so much so that the one created for the Winter Olympics at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, 190km northwest of Beijing, is modelled on the Swiss one.
I watch Olympic snowboarders from Japan, Germany and Australia take turns to practice their moves at the Laax halfpipe surrounded by their entourage of coaches and support staff. Jenise meanwhile stood alone among them all, determined, defiant, focused, fuelled by Oreo biscuits and a hunger to smash her goals.
Born in San Francisco to a Maltese father and an American mother, Jenise grew up on an ice-skating rink watching her mother, a former professional figure skater, coach future skating stars.
Her father George Spiteri had taken over the celebrated pro-favourite ice-skating boots company SP-Teri from his father Joseph who was originally from Ħamrun and had emigrated to the US from Malta with his wife soon after World War II.
Jenise was “performing” on ice-skates by the age of 15 months. But ice-skating was not her calling.
It was an advert for a summer snowboarding camp on a glacier that caught her eye during the holidays before 12th grade in high school that would light the spark. By then she had only ever skied five times in her life and had only ever been on a snowboard for three days.
“It was the first time I had ever seen sponsored athletes and I decided that’s want I wanted to be. That was my dream,” she recalls.
Up till then she was set on an acting career and had already planned to study acting at a university in Los Angeles. Instead she enrolled at the University of Sierra Nevada on Lake Tahoe, some 320km away from home, which is famous for its winter sports programme.
“When I applied to join the sports team they asked me for my latest competition results. I had never done any competitions at that point. I couldn’t even turn properly on the snowboard or jump higher than 1.5m,” she said.
Undeterred, Jenise took a semester off school and entered all the competitions she could. She had a lot to learn and she had to learn very quickly, trying out new tricks during the contest itself without any prior practice and hitting ever bigger jumps.
By the end of that first season she was on the podium for all the five events she had entered. It was only then that her father suddenly realised how seriously she was taking this.
A bursary from the Olympic Solidarity programme covers some of the considerable training expenses but comes “nowhere close to paying for full-time training. I have to tell coaches I cannot train with them every day because it is just too expensive. I have to choose where the money goes.
“There have been many times when I wanted to quit, when the obstacles became too much to handle but then I tell myself I had already put in so much into this sport. I have to find ways to work through the challenges.”
Spiteri even battled through a whole year of pain while recovering from a bad knee injury. She snowboards ten months of the year and the rest of the time enjoys skateboarding with her professional skateboarding boyfriend.
Most of the time she is so focused on the competition that she barely notices the surroundings. But occasionally she gets emotionally overwhelmed by the beauty of the mountains and appreciates how lucky she has been to have had the opportunity to travel the world while doing what she loves best.
“On competition days I am usually stressed and then sometimes I would be standing at the top of the pipe ready to drop in and I look at the mountains and I think wow, I am so lucky,” she says.
She may have been brought up half way across the globe from Malta, but Jenise feels as Maltese as she is American. The Maltese community in San Francisco is a large and closely connected one with regular gatherings and events for Maltese festas attracting hundreds of people.
Jenise recalled blissful summers in Buġibba with her many cousins “eating a few too many pastizzi” and sightseeing “all over the island” with her parents, although she regretted not having learnt the language.
“My dad only spoke to me in Maltese whenever I did something bad and my Nanna would exclaim ‘Madonna!’”
Sadly none of Jenise’s family or friends, or anyone for that matter, will be able to watch her in Beijing due to strict COVID-19 restrictions.
“When they announced that there will be no foreign audience allowed I felt huge devastation. It almost ruined the Olympics for me. I was really looking forward to having my parents there with me.”
Jenise is being accompanied by her coach and MOC Director of Sport Charlene Attard.
Qualifying runJenise will only get three practice sessions of two hours each on the Olympic halfpipe before the qualifying run on February 9.
Out of 24 athletes only the top placed six will proceed to the finals the next day.
While that halfpipe may have been modelled on the one at Laax, any difference in the angles of the walls, even if just a few degrees, can affect how you ride it. The pipe will be created out of artificial snow which is already raising concerns over safety issues as the substance creates harder, faster surfaces.
Having missed out on a first chance to represent Malta at the Olympics four years ago, Jenise is determined to do Malta and herself proud this time.
“I hope I can ride the pipe to the best of my abilities and if when I finish I feel I have done well then I’ll be really proud of that. I only get two tries. I don’t want to stress. I want to enjoy it.”
The announcement of a Maltese athlete representing Malta at the Winter Olympics always raises bemused eyebrows.
But Jenise believes nothing should stand in the way of fulfilling your dreams, not even the lack of snow.
“A lot of people feel they are limited by the island. I had to move away from home in order to pursue my dream. It is not so difficult to fly to Milan for example and drive to the mountains. It’s a pity the ice skating rink was closed down. Maybe Malta could have had a figure skater by now at the Olympics. It seems sports is not considered a career in Malta.”
China’s Olympics rules state that the athletes must leave the country within 48 hours of finishing their competition.
So what awaits Jenise after Beijing? “Freedom,” she laughs.
“I’ll be able to choose which mountain to visit rather than travel purely for contests.”
Spiteri admits she’s had enough of cold weather and joked that if and when she has any children, she’ll most likely introduce them to surfing rather than snowboarding “so I can be the mum sitting on a beach not a cold piste.”
And perhaps another attempt at the Olympics in four years’ time? She wouldn’t rule that out.
What is a halfpipe?Snowboarding’s most famous contest, the halfpipe, is performed in a half tube of snow with walls up to 6.7m high and slopes between 16 and 18 degrees which is enough of a pitch for snowboarders to maintain their momentum.
Snowboarders “drop in” by entering the upper end of the pipe at high speed from either the left or the right side, using that speed to ride up the opposite wall and into the air to perform spins, flips or board-grabbing tricks before landing back into the pipe.
Athletes are judged on the technical difficulty of the tricks, execution, height and style.
But do not think her journey to the Olympics was all sunshine and fluffy snow in picture postcard scenery.
By some happy coincidence that was indeed the setting of our interview in the Swiss ski resort of Laax a couple of weeks ago.
It was a welcome reprieve for Jenise after a tortuous decade of long hours of training in sub-zero temperatures, competitions all over the world, expensive lift passes and coaching sessions, so expensive that she spends several months of the year sleeping in a freezing van to save on rent and often hikes up the mountain carrying her snowboard on her back to skip paying for the ski-lift in order to have enough money to pay for a coach.
“It sucks,” she concedes. “But there’s nothing I can do about it. It makes me stronger and tougher.”
When you want something badly enough, you do whatever it takes to achieve it. And Jenise wanted this very badly indeed.
As we sit down on her upturned snowboard on the side of the piste I am immediately struck by the sheer strength of will in this petite 29-year old woman with blue-green plaits and wide, captivating smile.
She had been training for six hours already that day, alone, with no coach or anyone to give her feedback or motivational pep-talks.
“I talk to myself,” she says with a wry smile.
The halfpipe at Laax is considered to be the best in the world so much so that the one created for the Winter Olympics at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, 190km northwest of Beijing, is modelled on the Swiss one.
I watch Olympic snowboarders from Japan, Germany and Australia take turns to practice their moves at the Laax halfpipe surrounded by their entourage of coaches and support staff. Jenise meanwhile stood alone among them all, determined, defiant, focused, fuelled by Oreo biscuits and a hunger to smash her goals.
Born in San Francisco to a Maltese father and an American mother, Jenise grew up on an ice-skating rink watching her mother, a former professional figure skater, coach future skating stars.
Her father George Spiteri had taken over the celebrated pro-favourite ice-skating boots company SP-Teri from his father Joseph who was originally from Ħamrun and had emigrated to the US from Malta with his wife soon after World War II.
Jenise was “performing” on ice-skates by the age of 15 months. But ice-skating was not her calling.
It was an advert for a summer snowboarding camp on a glacier that caught her eye during the holidays before 12th grade in high school that would light the spark. By then she had only ever skied five times in her life and had only ever been on a snowboard for three days.
“It was the first time I had ever seen sponsored athletes and I decided that’s want I wanted to be. That was my dream,” she recalls.
Up till then she was set on an acting career and had already planned to study acting at a university in Los Angeles. Instead she enrolled at the University of Sierra Nevada on Lake Tahoe, some 320km away from home, which is famous for its winter sports programme.
“When I applied to join the sports team they asked me for my latest competition results. I had never done any competitions at that point. I couldn’t even turn properly on the snowboard or jump higher than 1.5m,” she said.
Undeterred, Jenise took a semester off school and entered all the competitions she could. She had a lot to learn and she had to learn very quickly, trying out new tricks during the contest itself without any prior practice and hitting ever bigger jumps.
By the end of that first season she was on the podium for all the five events she had entered. It was only then that her father suddenly realised how seriously she was taking this.
A bursary from the Olympic Solidarity programme covers some of the considerable training expenses but comes “nowhere close to paying for full-time training. I have to tell coaches I cannot train with them every day because it is just too expensive. I have to choose where the money goes.
“There have been many times when I wanted to quit, when the obstacles became too much to handle but then I tell myself I had already put in so much into this sport. I have to find ways to work through the challenges.”
Spiteri even battled through a whole year of pain while recovering from a bad knee injury. She snowboards ten months of the year and the rest of the time enjoys skateboarding with her professional skateboarding boyfriend.
Most of the time she is so focused on the competition that she barely notices the surroundings. But occasionally she gets emotionally overwhelmed by the beauty of the mountains and appreciates how lucky she has been to have had the opportunity to travel the world while doing what she loves best.
“On competition days I am usually stressed and then sometimes I would be standing at the top of the pipe ready to drop in and I look at the mountains and I think wow, I am so lucky,” she says.
She may have been brought up half way across the globe from Malta, but Jenise feels as Maltese as she is American. The Maltese community in San Francisco is a large and closely connected one with regular gatherings and events for Maltese festas attracting hundreds of people.
Jenise recalled blissful summers in Buġibba with her many cousins “eating a few too many pastizzi” and sightseeing “all over the island” with her parents, although she regretted not having learnt the language.
“My dad only spoke to me in Maltese whenever I did something bad and my Nanna would exclaim ‘Madonna!’”
Sadly none of Jenise’s family or friends, or anyone for that matter, will be able to watch her in Beijing due to strict COVID-19 restrictions.
“When they announced that there will be no foreign audience allowed I felt huge devastation. It almost ruined the Olympics for me. I was really looking forward to having my parents there with me.”
Jenise is being accompanied by her coach and MOC Director of Sport Charlene Attard.
Qualifying runJenise will only get three practice sessions of two hours each on the Olympic halfpipe before the qualifying run on February 9.
Out of 24 athletes only the top placed six will proceed to the finals the next day.
While that halfpipe may have been modelled on the one at Laax, any difference in the angles of the walls, even if just a few degrees, can affect how you ride it. The pipe will be created out of artificial snow which is already raising concerns over safety issues as the substance creates harder, faster surfaces.
Having missed out on a first chance to represent Malta at the Olympics four years ago, Jenise is determined to do Malta and herself proud this time.
“I hope I can ride the pipe to the best of my abilities and if when I finish I feel I have done well then I’ll be really proud of that. I only get two tries. I don’t want to stress. I want to enjoy it.”
The announcement of a Maltese athlete representing Malta at the Winter Olympics always raises bemused eyebrows.
But Jenise believes nothing should stand in the way of fulfilling your dreams, not even the lack of snow.
“A lot of people feel they are limited by the island. I had to move away from home in order to pursue my dream. It is not so difficult to fly to Milan for example and drive to the mountains. It’s a pity the ice skating rink was closed down. Maybe Malta could have had a figure skater by now at the Olympics. It seems sports is not considered a career in Malta.”
China’s Olympics rules state that the athletes must leave the country within 48 hours of finishing their competition.
So what awaits Jenise after Beijing? “Freedom,” she laughs.
“I’ll be able to choose which mountain to visit rather than travel purely for contests.”
Spiteri admits she’s had enough of cold weather and joked that if and when she has any children, she’ll most likely introduce them to surfing rather than snowboarding “so I can be the mum sitting on a beach not a cold piste.”
And perhaps another attempt at the Olympics in four years’ time? She wouldn’t rule that out.
What is a halfpipe?Snowboarding’s most famous contest, the halfpipe, is performed in a half tube of snow with walls up to 6.7m high and slopes between 16 and 18 degrees which is enough of a pitch for snowboarders to maintain their momentum.
Snowboarders “drop in” by entering the upper end of the pipe at high speed from either the left or the right side, using that speed to ride up the opposite wall and into the air to perform spins, flips or board-grabbing tricks before landing back into the pipe.
Athletes are judged on the technical difficulty of the tricks, execution, height and style.
For the first time ever in California and the Western US a Musical Stage Play from Malta will be performed at a local auditorium in the SF Bay Area. The play is called, "Star Of Strait Street". (Strada Stretta) The play is in English and is based on a true-life love story in Malta during WWII. The play has achieved great success in England, Australia and other places and of course in Malta. Now we have the wonderful opportunity to enjoy it here in the SF Bay Area.
Attached please find a "SAVE THE DAY" flyer. Make sure you mark your calendar on the evening of Friday, March 29th 2019. Please let family and friends and others on your e-mail, Facebook, or other contact lists know so everyone will have a chance to attend and enjoy this gem of a musical that takes you right into the warm heart of Malta in the midst of war.
Attendance is Free of Charge but in order to have a better idea on the number of attendees and to send additional information, we ask that you please send an e-mail with the names, e-mail, addresses and contact phone numbers of everyone in your party.
Send e-mails to:
starstraitstreet@gmail.com
Attached please find a "SAVE THE DAY" flyer. Make sure you mark your calendar on the evening of Friday, March 29th 2019. Please let family and friends and others on your e-mail, Facebook, or other contact lists know so everyone will have a chance to attend and enjoy this gem of a musical that takes you right into the warm heart of Malta in the midst of war.
Attendance is Free of Charge but in order to have a better idea on the number of attendees and to send additional information, we ask that you please send an e-mail with the names, e-mail, addresses and contact phone numbers of everyone in your party.
Send e-mails to:
starstraitstreet@gmail.com
MALTESE E-NEWSLETTER
Please click on the link below to read all about Maltese organizations throughout the world including cultural, historical and community events!
Please click on the link below to read all about Maltese organizations throughout the world including cultural, historical and community events!
malta_newsletter_2019.pdf | |
File Size: | 3172 kb |
File Type: |
All Clear is a book written by John Mifsud, Jr.! This wonderful accounting of what his family experienced during WWII was presented to a representative of the Mayor's office in San Francisco on Malta Day by Hon Consul General, Louis Vella. You can view photos of this presentation on our Photo Gallery page!
Take a look at the Classic Car Museum in Malta!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Mason San Filippo and Larry Satter have just won first place in the California State Agriscience Fair!!!
Mason and Larry are back to back state champions! In 2015 the duo traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to compete nationally and finished in the top ten of their division. This year they travel to Indianapolis, Indiana in October. Both boys are sophomores at Elk Grove High School. Their goal is to place in the top three this year at the National FFA Convention & Expo. We wish Mason and Larry the very best! Let's go California!
Mason San Filippo - Great Grandson to Spiro and Mary Gatt, Grandson to Marianne Gatt San Filippo. Mason's parents, Shawn and Melonie San Filippo are generous donors to our annual MHA Classic Car Show.
Mason San Filippo and Larry Satter have just won first place in the California State Agriscience Fair!!!
Mason and Larry are back to back state champions! In 2015 the duo traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to compete nationally and finished in the top ten of their division. This year they travel to Indianapolis, Indiana in October. Both boys are sophomores at Elk Grove High School. Their goal is to place in the top three this year at the National FFA Convention & Expo. We wish Mason and Larry the very best! Let's go California!
Mason San Filippo - Great Grandson to Spiro and Mary Gatt, Grandson to Marianne Gatt San Filippo. Mason's parents, Shawn and Melonie San Filippo are generous donors to our annual MHA Classic Car Show.
We are so proud to announce that the Maltese Heritage Association won 3RD PLACE in the Italian Heritage Day Parade for the BEST FLOAT!
Many thanks to all who supported us during our fundraising events. Without you we wouldn't have been able to active this amazing honor.
Many thanks to all who supported us during our fundraising events. Without you we wouldn't have been able to active this amazing honor.
A warm and sincere welcome to Stefanie Joy Muscat, her daughter Abigail and husband, Ty! Stefanie is the President of the Board of Directors of the American Malta Foundation. She graciously took time during her visit to San Francisco to meet with Louis Vella, Hon Council General of Malta in San Francisco and Josie Ghiglieri, Carmen Orton and Debbie Ghiglieri of the Maltese Heritage Association. Stefanie, in alliance with Din I-Art Helwa, the National Trust of Malta, has done much to inspire Americans to learn about, experience and support places of great historic, cultural and natural significance in Malta. Her enthusiasm and love for our beloved island is clearly evident in conversations about her foundation and continued efforts to unite Maltese communities here and abroad. One arm of the American Malta Foundation is the Northern American Maltese Oral History Project (NAMOP). They are attempting to record Maltese immigrant experiences in their own words to be shared and recorded for future generations to enjoy. Please let us know if you want to participate in this worthwhile endeavor and we will put you in touch with the appropriate individual. Many thanks, Stefanie, for your tireless efforts and wonderful work you and your organization does on behalf of the Maltese community. Your team's attempts to preserve the precious and invaluable historical monuments on our beloved island will be appreciated by not only our but future generations to come!
August 15, 2015 - Millbrae Machines Car Show WINNERS!
Photos: First Row - Charles Grima, Paul Ghiglieri, Joe Xuereb and Don DeMarco proudly displaying their awards.
2nd Row - Don DeMarco won "People's Choice" for his 1957 Chevy 2 door Hard Top, Paul Ghiglieri won "Best Paint" for his 1966 Pontiac GTO,
Joe Xuereb won "Best Ford" for his 1968 Ford Mustang and Charles Grima won "People's Choice" for his 1934 Chevy Town Sedan.
Photos: First Row - Charles Grima, Paul Ghiglieri, Joe Xuereb and Don DeMarco proudly displaying their awards.
2nd Row - Don DeMarco won "People's Choice" for his 1957 Chevy 2 door Hard Top, Paul Ghiglieri won "Best Paint" for his 1966 Pontiac GTO,
Joe Xuereb won "Best Ford" for his 1968 Ford Mustang and Charles Grima won "People's Choice" for his 1934 Chevy Town Sedan.