BADIA POLESINE (Rovigo) – On May 1st, in the council chamber of the town hall, the traditional presentation of the merits of the work which has been taking place since 1969, when Comm. Guido Mora had the idea of establishing it on the occasion of Labor Day. The first awards went to Maria Avanzo and Giuseppe Gulmini.
This year the ceremony, organized by Pro loco, featured protagonists Nicoletta Zocchi And Vinicio Ferrigato.
With the mayor Giovanni Rossi there was the council and the leaders of Pro Loco and, of course, family and friends.
In presenting the new honorees, the mayor Rossi it connected the National Labor Day with the industriousness of those in our community who worked hard in their daily lives with honesty and dedication.
After the new president Elisa Larentis read, with some collaborators, the curricula of Nicoletta And Vinicius, recalling the conditions for recognition, the municipal master of ceremonies intervened Mario Baratella to request a minute of silence in memory of those killed at work in Badia.
The former president of Avis, Marco Turattiproposed a reflection on the meaning of the words “merit”, “work” and “volunteering”.
Nicoletta Zocchithe penultimate of seven siblings, achieved recognition for her work history and her commitment to social volunteering, which continues to this day.
Dad Damiana potato trader from Varese, married the thirty-year-old Elena Torresani. The two moved from Rovereto to Badia where they started a profitable potato import/export business, near the railway station. “I still remember when we moved the wagons from the station with a tractor to the depot”, recalls Nicoletta, who at the time collaborated in the family business. The sudden death of her seventy-two-year-old father in 1968 shuffled her cards and Nicoletta had to rewrite her future. She found employment at the then emerging Confitex of Castelfranco Veneto, which settled in Badia in the premises of her father’s company, before moving the operational headquarters to where Abafoods is now located. In that company Nicoletta became department head from 1969 to 1992, when the textile company, after various name changes, ceased operations in Badia.
From that moment Nicoletta began to deal with social volunteering, first with Avis, of which she was a donor, all-round secretary and president from 1991 to 1999. Still a member.
When, on 30 March 1987, the AVS (Rescue Volunteers) was established as an offshoot of Avis, Nicoletta also collaborated with the new association, where she is still engaged as a companion.
After the glorious sixties in which she sang in the parish choir (the former Arrigo Boito directed first by maestro Belloni and then by Ebe Montin), Nicoletta has resumed singing for twelve years with today’s “Schola cantorum”.
The accountant Vinicio Ferrigatoborn in 1947, born in via Cavallo in Salvaterra where he also attended elementary school with the unforgettable teacher Nerina Argia Vaccari, he has been married since 1976 to Mrs. Adriana Cordoli with whom he lives in via Colombano.
He was one of the founders of the Association of Rescue Volunteers (Avs) of Badia Polesine, which is still operational today. He was also the creator of twinning with donor associations in other regions, such as those of Carate Brianza and Chiari in Lombardy, and Cavazzo Carnico in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
In 1994 he founded Avis Intercomunale. He also cultivates two great passions: painting of which he has been the protagonist in various exhibitions and music for which he founded the Orazio Tarditi association. He was also a member of the “Coro Ine” of Portomaggiore for twenty years, but still sings with the parish “Schola cantorum”.
One of his characteristics, highlighted by the mayor, which makes him particularly likeable and popular to everyone, is that of always having a new joke ready to propose to anyone he meets. And with a joke, in fact, he took leave at the end of the ceremony.
Ugo Mariano Brasioli
