PRESS RELEASE
The winners of the Marida Dazzi scholarship for the 2023/24 school year were awarded, aimed at the 2nd level secondary school Liceo Repetti Carrara with the aim of creating an article that promotes solidarity, hospitality, giving, sharing and volunteering as values of civil society that respects the person. The students of classes 3A and 3B participated by producing interesting compositions. The commission, composed of Dr. Ezio Szorenyi, president of AIL Sec. Massa-Carrara Province; Prof. Maria Grassi AIL Massa Carrara; Claudia Giannarelli, parent member and Filippo Fiaschi, student member of the Institute Council and the journalist Angela Maria Fruzzetti, expressed their opinion in favor of two works created respectively by Aurora Pellini class 3A (A fairy tale to fly again) and by Eleonora Figaia class 3B (Ballad of Solidarity).
The two students received a scholarship of 250 euros each. Therefore, the initiative is promoted by Ail (Association against leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma) and sponsored by Confartigianato Imprese Massa-Carrara, and is part of the numerous social actions. Therefore, the initiative is promoted by Ail (Association against leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma) and sponsored by Confartigianato Imprese Massa-Carrara and is part of the numerous social actions.
The Marida Dazzi scholarship aims to promote and develop scientific knowledge in the field of blood diseases, bone marrow donation and raise awareness of cooperation, solidarity and volunteering. As at every edition, the Ail will promulgate the results of this new scholarship by publishing the two winning texts in the brochure which will then be made available to the public.
The awards ceremony took place in the main hall of the Repetti High School in the presence of students and teachers Maria Stella Raggi and Silvia Crudeli. Diplomas of merit and a book were awarded to Gaia Marchi and Lorenzo Masetti of class 3A and to Edoardo Mariotti, Irene Martinelli and Emma Neri of 3B. The winners had the opportunity to read their compositions demonstrating the school’s attention to social issues so important that they affect the lives of all of us.
Ballad of solidarity
Praise of the civil virtues of the volunteersIf the civil virtues were traces of a single album, perhaps one of those that have been lying in the basement for decades, they would constitute a concept album. “Respect”, distinct and calm; “generosity”, sparkling and engaging; “tolerance”, warm and clear: different melodies but united by a musical base produced by the same instrument, solidarity.
It is a harmony that has echoed for centuries: even before human genius conceived the record player, it seems to have already cradled the atmosphere of the most developed civilizations.
Greek citizens were members of a community, precisely cum-munus, a bringing together of gifts, towards which they felt a strong sense of responsibility.Under the Attic sky, in the dazzling brightness of the Athenian sun, philosophers, artists and poets made their time, resources and support available to the polis, giving life to a society and models that the world would imitate and admire for centuries . The gift is the expression and construction of social identity, the gift is the basis of the action of both the individual man and peoples. It is in the context of Greek civilization that the milestones of today’s civilization arose, including the anthropological constant of xenìa, hospitality: still today at the basis of social bonds, at the origin of the birth of society itself.
Currently many are “Odysseus” who wander every day facing the violent storms of life, hoping to also find a caring Nausicaa or a welcoming court of the Phaeacians.
A safe refuge, always sought when an enraged Poseidon seems to hinder the navigation of life, is represented by collective and disinterested associations such as AIL.
The new heroes of our times, without armor and without superpowers, are the volunteers who with their daily commitment offer kind gestures and thoughtful words, they do not shy away from the sight of disfigured bodies or listening to silenced voices, they extend a hand of “support ” to those who need support, to those who are fragile or alone.
Their work is not reduced to the do ut des which transforms the original intention of donating into the first stage of a chain of obligations in which “receiving” and “reciprocating” is also foreseen. The volunteer’s action does not aim at acquiring goods, increasing wealth, maximizing material interests, but continually seeks “emotional” compensation that can fill the incompleteness or inadequacy, gaps typical of the fragile nature of man.
With the gift, man manages to free himself from the chains of individualism and isolation, discovering a bond of belonging, a bond with the other which is a reflection of his humanitas, the set of qualities specific to homo, his being humanus. According to Seneca, solidarity is inherent in human nature itself and cannot be separated from it, it calls everyone to feel part of an indissoluble unity as “membra sumus corporis magni”, “we are members of a single large body”, and brings us back the suggestive image of the vault that does not collapse thanks to the stones that support each other.
The volunteers, both those who constitute a social exemplum by promoting moral-ethical duties, and those who behind the scenes, without appear or make noise, they carry out their “mission” every day. The former are “painted boulders” of bright colors that arouse the admiration of the more fragile pebbles, the latter, although appearing “inert grey”, nevertheless have the same importance in supporting the structure.
Everyone should search in the dustiest corners of the cellar for a vinyl of civil virtues, then place it delicately on the turntable and dance together on the sweet notes of the ballad of solidarity, so that human beings do not forget that harmony that accompanied the splendor of the most flourishing civilizations , because “homo sum: humaninihil a me alienum puto”, as the poet Terence says.
Eleonora Figaia
