The twinning agreement between the Public Assistance Croce Azzurra Monegliese Civil Protection Group and the Alberto da Giussano di Legnano Civil Protection was signed in the council chamber of the Municipality of Moneglia. The document was signed by the two respective Presidents, the lawyer. Matteo Del Buono and the engineer. Giuliano Prandoni. The mayors of the two cities, Claudio Magro and Lorenzo Radice, as well as local authorities, were also present at the time of signing. The Pact provides for various forms of exchange and cooperation in civil protection activities, increasing the collaboration between the two groups of volunteers started for services related to the pandemic emergency and continued with subsequent initiatives.
President Del Buono opens: “Today we are signing something that has been stable for a long time. We live in a beautiful, but extremely fragile area. Our group was founded in 2018 by people who proposed themselves following the Vernazza flood in the Cinque Terre, when the houses were invaded by 3 meters of mud and the people were rescued by arriving on adventurous journeys only from the sea. In 2019 a violent storm arrived and also thanks to this new group the damage was limited 2020 Covid arrived. The economy and well-being of our families is based on tourism. We invented ways to space the umbrellas on the beach and much more, but everything had to be controlled and we were the few to ask if it was possible to receive a hand from the volunteers of Legnano, from people who I do not classify as “fast and run tourists”, but as “travellers”, that is, people who in some way are inserted into the local social fabric, people who give a lot, but from whom you also receive so much, which remains in everyone’s memory.”
“The signing of the Pact is indeed a formal act, but it is above all the expression of the desire to lend a hand to those in need – underlined Prandoni in his speech. But there is perhaps an even more important aspect in this twinning, which is the ability to say: I can’t do it alone, I need help. And being able to ask for help is absolutely not a given, and what Moneglia did represents a great act of humility, an example to follow. .» Prandoni recalled a passage from Monsignor Cairati, provost of Legnano, who spoke last week at the inauguration of the new Legnano headquarters: «working together is a matter of communion, not of uniforms», difficult to obtain due to jealousy and parochialism that exist even between parishes of the same city, but fundamental to truly be in communion”.
The president of Legnano recalled the origin of the collaboration between the two cities, which dates back to 2010, on the occasion of services during freediving competitions, and which was strengthened ten years later in the first phase of Covid 19 when the volunteers of the group Legnanese responded to Del Buono’s appeal by coming here to all work together for two months, to help make tourists perceive that the city was made as safe as possible, also to safeguard the economic tourist fabric of the city.
“In Italy we do our best when we are in difficulty – highlighted Mayor Radice: it is even more significant, therefore, that the two Civil Protections, after the positive collaboration during a critical period such as the pandemic, continue to work together and sanction this commitment through a pact. Covid has taught everyone that we either get out of difficulties together or we don’t get out of them; and for this reason the commitment of the two Civil Protections, based on the logic of networking, cooperation and horizontal subsidiarity, reveals the strength sense of duty towards the communities, not only of one’s own territory, but of different territories. From me, thanks for the task you carry out every day and I await the Monegliese Prociv in Legnano: you will always have our doors open”.
The mayor of Moneglia, also a volunteer for the local Prociv, expresses all his pride for the group which has also grown numerically in just a few years. He also underlines that the collaboration with Legnano continued after the pandemic with the training received by Legnano volunteers in the field of safe driving of 4×4 vehicles and in the generous donation of a trailer to transport a pneumatic tent recently received thanks to the contribution of the Liguria Region.
