Madison County Bar donates to Melucci Italian Fund at SIUE

 

BELOW FROM LEFT: Tony DiPaolo, Italian lecturer at SIUE; Philip J. Rarick, chair of the Matt Melucci Fund for Italian Studies; and Dr. Thomas Lavallee, chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at SIUE.

From Illinois Business Journal news services

The Madison County Bar Association has contributed $1,000 toward the Matt Melucci Fund for Italian Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The fund honors the late Matt Melucci.

“The donation from the Madison County Bar Association to the Matt Melucci fund is a timely contribution that is much appreciated,” said Dr. Thomas Lavallee, chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at SIUE, which houses the fund for Italian Studies.

The fund supports the study of the Italian language and culture at the university. Melucci served as circuit clerk of Madison County for more than two decades and was proud of his Italian heritage. After he died in 2012, friends, family and community members collaborated to create a fund for Italian Studies at SIUE as a tribute.

“The Madison County Bar Association has made a meaningful gesture to help honor the efforts of Matt Melucci,” Lavallee said. “The fund will greatly assist students who wish to add significant depth to their language learning through study abroad in Italy and will also help bring Italian studies programming to the University and local community.”

The steering committee for the Matt Melucci Fund has been actively seeking contributions and held a gala fund-raising event last fall. It is currently working on long-range plans of promoting Italian Studies within the university and surrounding community.

For more information contact the Department of Foreign Languages at (618) 650-3510. Contributions are tax-deductible.