 Welcome to Gracie Mansion for our annual celebration of Columbus Day and Italian Heritage. I am Diane Savino. I currently have a job at City Hall as a senior advisor to the mayor, but you may have known me as a state senator for the 23rd Senate District for 18 years, representing Staten Island and parts of South Brooklyn. I am very proud to be here tonight to welcome you all to Gracie Mansion. On behalf of the mayor of the City of New York, who could not be here with you, but he is with you in spirit. Now I sent the mayor some pictures, I took some pictures of the stuff, because I said things are looking up at Gracie. We have Amarone at the bar, we have meatballs over there, we have caviar and truffles, we have real food as opposed to last year, and we're so happy you all came back. We are very proud of our Italian heritage here. The City of New York remains to this day. The community that has the largest, shh, I'm about to tell you something about yourselves, the largest community of Italian Americans in the country, 3.2 million New Yorkers in this city claim to be of Italian heritage. We have the largest population of, oh by the way, most of them live in Staten Island. We have the largest population of Italians in the state. The only state second to us is California, and they have double our population. That means Italian Americans decided to come to New York and make it their home and build this city and own pieces of it. And we have left our mark everywhere, whether it's in our businesses, whether it's in our schools, whether it's in the city as what it is, and helping other people come along too. So I am very proud to be part of that tradition. And right now I would like to introduce a message from the current occupant of Gracie Mansion, our mayor, my friend, the great mayor of the city of New York, Eric Adams. This is Mayor Eric Adams. Welcome to the People's House. How fitting that the first mayor who lived here was Italian American, Fiorro LaGuardia. The Italian American community has made its mark on our city. You can see it from Little Italy to the Barisana Bridge to LaGuardia Airport. And you can taste it in the New York Slice, pasta, and canola. New York is the city it is today because your ancestors helped to build it. And you are the small business owners, first responders and workers who keep our city moving. New York is your city. It is a place where every New Yorker, no matter where they came from, can live the American dream. Now, let's celebrate our Italian community. Introducing the former councilman from Staten Island, the former borough president of Staten Island, and the current highest serving Italian American in the administration, our borough commissioner, Jimmy Otto. Stay close, guys. There is a mistake. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Stanley Tucci. You may know me from some of my films, Pritzze's Honor, Road to Perdition, The Devil Wears Prada. Probably you remember me most recently from my CNN series where I traipse all over our homeland eating food. It's wonderful to be here. I met Ms. Savino for the first time tonight. I'm impressed by her wit, her moxie, her intelligence. I said to her, you know, you should consider politics. And she told me she represented Staten Island or lived in Staten Island. I said, years ago there was this good-looking, smart, bushy-haired, dark-haired, I think he was a councilman. I don't know whatever happened to him. That's an inside joke for Diana. Folks, welcome. Welcome to Gracie Mansion. I want to take two minutes of your time to read a bit of the prologue from this book from 1992, La Storia. Real quickly, it is the contributions of the great majority that are most difficult to record, those millions of anonymous immigrants who took part in building railroads, tunnels and skyscrapers, who worked in factories and farms helping to clothe and feed the country, and who are old men and women today. Some live lonely lives in the warm streets of their old enclaves, others prospered and moved to the suburbs or followed their memory of sunny Italy to Florida or California. As these men and women disappear, much of their life during the Great Migration disappears with them. We record their saga, as well as that of their American children, here not only to show what it meant to be alive during the period of migration from Italy to America, but also to document that inner migration from Abrucesi, Genovesi, Napolitan, Sicilian, to Italian, to Italian-American, and finally American. To prosperity, they may be anonymous, but to me and you, they are members of our family. They were our grandparents. They were our parents who came here and built this country. And you can regale me with the names of the famous ones. Tonight, let's take a moment for all those anonymous ones that we knew as family who built this country. Now, let's name some names and honor some folks that we should all be very proud of. Anthony? Thank you. Thank you, Jim. You know what? He does look like Stanley Tucci. He's known so many years, and now he dawns on me, my goodness. Okay, so the mayor of the city of New York is proud to honor the next group of honorees that we're going to call up to the stage. The first honoree is, and it does tie in, just bear in mind, it does tie in to what Jimmy just read. That legacy and that movement keeps moving on here in the city of New York by the fellow organizations and individuals. So first, I want to announce Mr. Don DeCarlo, a prominent attorney who has been involved in Italian-American causes for over 60 years of his life. Supporting the likes of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the Catholic Church, the Knights of Malta, and many other Italian causes in New York City. One you talk to will say he's a true legend, Mr. Don DeCarlo. Thanks. It's really a pleasure to receive this. My Italian grandparents from Naples, I wish they were here to see this. See we're a long way. We've come. My grandfather was a dynamite foreman on the UN down the road here. Little did he know. They'd have a grandson down the road who would go to college, law school, and get a great award like this. It shows. US, Italians, we're all there. Thanks. Our next honoree is an organization. The Columbus Citizens Foundation has for many decades been a beacon for promoting Italian culture and Italian-American heritage. Through their programs they offer opportunities to study Italian, learn about the great cultural ties past and present between Italy and the United States. And since 1964, excuse me, since 1984, they have provided scholarships to deserving Italian-American students with limited financial resources, encouraging them to fulfill their academic dreams. They have awarded more than $36 million to date. The Columbus Citizens Foundation organizes the annual Columbus Day Parade, which is the largest celebration of the Italian heritage in the United States. Accepting the honor for the Columbus Citizens Foundation is Mr. Angelo Vibolo. When I say hello to your friends, my fellow Italian-Americans. This weekend, across the country in a tri-state area, thousands of Italian-Americans are going to be celebrating Columbus Day. But there will be no greater celebration than we're going to have on Monday at the Columbus Day Parade. Over 30,000 people will be marching, tens of thousands will be watching, and it will be a grand celebration. We look forward to everyone attending, being there on Fifth Avenue and celebrating our great heritage and culture. This is Italian heritage and culture month, so let's not forget that. Following week in Washington, Neapha's going to do another celebration. So we're all here, we're all united. I want to say God bless America and God bless Italy. The third and last honoree recognized by the mayor to sit in New York is Dr. Joseph Schelzer, the founder and president of the Italian American Museum on Mulberry Street in the heart of Manhattan's Little Italy. He is a former vice president of Queens College and the first dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, which sponsored the groundbreaking exhibition, The Italians of New York, Five Centuries of Struggle and Achievement, and it was displayed at the New York Historical Society. It was with this exhibition, which inspired Dr. Schelzer to establish the Italian American Museum. Welcome to the stage, Dr. Schelzer. Hi, everybody. Happy Columbus weekend to all of you. I just want to say, the museum will tell your story our way, so that everyone will know about the struggles and the achievements of us, the Italian Americans of New York. So, semperavante. Last order of business, if I could have your attention. And the program's almost done, and you can get back to the food and the wine. So, last order of business is the Italian Culture Committee will like to present to the mayor to sit in New York, but in place of the mayor for this evening is Mr. Jimmy Otto, and Diane Savino, and Assembly Member Jennifer Rashkama. So, Italian Culture Committee, by all means, come up on the stage and present. Well, Vice President of the Italian Heritage and Culture Committee, I'm here today with my fellow board member, Professor and Dean of the John D. Klandra Institute, Dr. Anthony Tambori. We'd like to present to the mayor, and of course, thank him for tonight's event, our 47th anniversary poster. And our theme this year is the joy of learning Italian. So, the theme this year is the joy of learning Italian, as Maria just said. And so, we say to you, Buon divertimento, siamo tutti felici di poter festegiare. La nostra cultura sia la cultura italiana che la cultura italiana americana. Buon proseguimento e cin cin. Welcome to tonight's headline performer, New York tenor, Christopher Machio.