Youthful creativity, awareness of sustainable consumption, helping a classmate in difficulty in class. The commitment of young people on various fronts was recognized again this year by the Fondazione Città di Cremona, with the presentation – on Tuesday 21 May – of the prizes in memory of Attilio Barbieri, the sixteen-year-old partisan killed on the morning of 26 April 1945 in Piazza San Luca.
Three winners: Centro Fumetto Andrea Pazienza, for the “Fumetto Live” project; Miriam Federici for the dissemination of sustainable lifestyles in schools; Diego Nodemi, student of the Stradivari Artistic High School for the support he offers to a companion with particular fragilities.
“This year too, the memory of Attilio Barbieri is an opportunity to bring out from our community the energies and sensitivity that young people bring, which we hope will be an example and model for others“, thus Uliana Garoli, President of the Fondazione Città di Cremona, introduced the morning accompanied by the members of the commission: the councilor for Social Policies Rosita Viola, the delegate of the bishop Mons. Ruggero Zucchelli, the professor Chiara Ghezzi of the Manin Classical high school, the general secretary of the Lamberto Ghilardi Foundation and the mayor Gianluca Galimberti.
“Our city needs young people“, said the latter, “of their energy and passion. All the projects presented are important, from the promotion that is done to the beautiful things that happen in our city, through new languages; attention to the environment because the future of our civilization is at stake here, studies and research are needed but also a change in personal attitudes; up to making themselves available to others free of charge.“
Receiving the award for the Comics Center was the manager Michele Ginevra: “Fumetto Live – he said – is an initiative that involves around twenty young cartoonists, present with their easels to capture particular moments during the most popular events, for example the Festa del Torrone, the Open Doors festival, or as happened during the 90th anniversary of Avis. A way to stimulate young people’s protagonism in city life at the same time as promoting it externally, overcoming shyness, rewarding creativity“. A taste of the quality of their work during the award ceremony was offered by Emma and Martin, emerging cartoonists. Emma’s drawing portrays a surfer: “when you have a passion it’s right to ride the wave“, has explained.
“This award is an encouragement to move forward in this direction – added Ginevra – In recent years the Comics Center has grown a lot, has had a new headquarters, has become increasingly connected with the educational and social as well as cultural policies of the Municipality, giving young people the opportunity to be present in a world that too often places them at the margins“.
Miriam Federici, a student of Literature, was recommended by the “Città Rurale” Association, a voluntary organization which together with others and the Polytechnic organized the series of meetings at the Filodrammatici Theater “Walking on a silk thread” on topics such as climate, biodiversity, energy sustainability. She is a voluntary member of the Nonsolonoi Social cooperative, she is responsible for spreading the products and principles of fair trade.
In this context, in the 2022/23 school year he contributed to a training course in a class of the Aselli scientific high school, which dealt with the production chain in Fast Fashion to invite students to reflect on the environmental consequences of clothing and the impact that has in the lives of female garment workers in Southeast Asia.
In the 2023/24 school year he created and conducted projects at the Liceo Manin, the Romani Institute of Casalmaggiore and in some primary schools as part of the initiative of the Municipality of Cremona “Il Tempo Credibile”, which addresses the theme of nutrition from different points of view.
“I am moved to think of Attilio Barbieri, a student at Manin, who spent his school years during the war“, said Chiara Ghezzi when presenting the award. “An impoverished, regimented school, in an era in which young people were not given the opportunity to participate. He wanted to take part in the life of his time, putting his own at risk. Liceo Manin today is very different from then, I like to think that it is still a school that moves the intelligence and arouses the passions of young people“.
Diego Nodemi, a 5th C figurative student of the Stradivari artistic high school, was presented by professor Maria Anna Ieluzzi. The motivation for the award: “Every day the student carries out small daily gestures that aim to involve, in the social and friendly life within the school community, the classmate who presents particular fragilities, creating an environment in which the classmate is able to fully realize his own interests and own aptitudes, giving an example of an active and proactive inclusive attitude, allowing the child to participate in the social life of the rest of the class“.
The award was presented by Fiorenzo Bassi, president of the Lazzaro Chiappari association which brings together the former pupils of the orphanage. In the year of the centenary of the foundation, we wanted to remember the generous contribution of Attilio Barbieri’s family for young people in difficulty, through the construction of the Barbieri Center where the children from the orphanage, currently housed in communities for minors, converged.
“Without justice there is no peace“, thus Monsignor Zucchelli closed his speech by quoting a famous phrase by Don Primo Mazzolari, as a reflection on the drama of the war that is involving so many young people just a few steps away from us.
