It is difficult to choose the most beautiful among the stories of solidarity, love, altruism, civic sense, passion for study of the 29 young and very young Alfieri della Repubblica which President Sergio Mattarella has chosen to reward on May 13th at the Quirinale. Of course, the story of Lorenzo, only 16 years old, who discovers a variable star is wonderful.
That is, a star which, due to physical causes, varies its brightness over time. A star – recognized and surveyed by the international body for variable stars of the American Association of Variable Star Observer – which now bears his name.
ANSA Agency Lorenzo discovers a star at 16, it now bears his name – News – Ansa.it ‘The universe has captured me since I was a child’ (ANSA)But a ranking cannot be made. Emanuele returns from school on a regional train, he hears a man in Romanian say he wants to kill his girlfriend: he knows the language and foils the murder. Selim is 17 years old, he sees a lady who collapses as soon as she gets off the bus and saves her life with cardiac massage: he feels such joy that he decides to become a Red Cross volunteer. Marta is 15 years old and transforms her pain from a very serious illness into strength to help others.
And Giulia, who loves poetry, makes it a language to talk about democracy, gender equality, the environment.
ANSA Agency Giulia da Calitri, in love with writing, becomes Standard Bearer – News – Ansa.it Democracy, environment, gender equality and the South in his texts (ANSA)With music, Letizia and Sofia bring relief, one to those displaced after the flood in Emilia-Romagna, the other to those who suffer oppression and illegality in Sicily.
They are the great stories of small lives that Mattarella hopes will become an example, a model, in dark times of selfishness, violence, oppression and wars.
Sebastiano is 9 years old but he is old enough to understand that if he runs hard for two kilometers on the mountain path where his father fainted, if he calls for help, he will save him. Irene, 10 years old, learns Ukrainian to help a child who has fled the war with whom she begins to share a snack and then shares her life. At 14, Giovanni is a Save the Children volunteer. ‘The goal of a more inclusive society can also be achieved through the simplicity of small silent gestures’, we read in the reasons given by the Quirinale which awarded the young scout Adele the recognition for her daily help to a disabled companion.
Alfonso arrives at the Turin International Book Fair writing a story of hardship and rebirth, the same one that many young and very young people have experienced after forced imprisonment due to Covid. Michele, from Puglia, 18 years old, instead reads books to the elderly, to keep them company. Matteo is just one of the many young volunteers from Romagna and Tuscany who made themselves available to the community after the violent floods that devastated Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. And little Matteo, 9 years old, promptly moves the leg of his father who was taken ill in the car from the accelerator and reaches the brake pedal, stopping the race and saving two lives.
Three plaques instead for ‘collective actions’ of solidarity: like that of the children of the 5A of Trasacco, in the province of L’Aquila, on a school visit to Rome, who decide to interrupt the trip when they realize that one of their classmates is disabled, due to a fault in the platform of the bus, he would not have been able to follow them into the city with his wheelchair. The children refuse to go down without their friend, they refuse to part with him.
ANSA Agency The mud angel who took a risk for a bacterium – News – Ansa.it ‘What a gift for the 18th birthday, I dedicate it to all the volunteers’ (ANSA)Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
