Legacy of Hope fundraiser helps local communities
CSU Stanislaus critical to event
By: Inner Pahal
Issue date: 12/9/09 Section: News
Walking into her father's mid-20th century era delicatessen, little 13-year-old Marie Assali was taken aback by the distinct smell of the man who had just entered, disbursing odors and signaling to little Marie that he probably hadn't showered for days. To her shock, her father didn't ask the man to leave, a man little Marie thought was "dirty and smelly."
Her father, a 1923 Italian immigrant who came to this country with no education and speaking very little English, had pockets filled with nothing more than the desire and determination to make it in a strange new land. Eventually, he would find success through hard work and determination and become the quintessential example of the "American dream," rising to own his own store: Casazza's Delicatessen, serving-up ready-to-eat fine food and wine.
Yet here stood this man, completely alien from what little Marie saw in her father and, to her complete surprise, her father took out a loaf of bread and began building the homeless man a sandwich filled with all the extras. What's more, his generosity afforded the man a ½ gallon of fine Gallo red Burgundy wine before he eventually departed on his journey.
"Why?" little Marie asked her father about aiding the homeless and added, "He's just a bum."
"Maybe so, but you don't know the story about him," her father said.
Her father, who came over when he was 14 years old, would regularly go to bed hungry as a child and grew to appreciate everything he had been blessed with in life. He had a saying for little Marie: "If I can't help someone who is down and hungry, then I'm not much of a man."
"It's remarkable," Assali says of her father's generosity for others.
Today, little Marie Assali is all grown-up and is the chairperson for the Legacy of Hope fundraiser, which raises funds for the United Samaritans Foundation (USF)-a charity that is determined to make sure nobody goes hungry in Stanislaus County.
USF was founded in 1994 as a nonprofit corporation to serve the needs of low income residents and the homeless in Stanislaus County by providing them with various services including a clothes closet, shower facilities, and nutritional meals delivered on mobile food service trucks."
Her father, a 1923 Italian immigrant who came to this country with no education and speaking very little English, had pockets filled with nothing more than the desire and determination to make it in a strange new land. Eventually, he would find success through hard work and determination and become the quintessential example of the "American dream," rising to own his own store: Casazza's Delicatessen, serving-up ready-to-eat fine food and wine.
Yet here stood this man, completely alien from what little Marie saw in her father and, to her complete surprise, her father took out a loaf of bread and began building the homeless man a sandwich filled with all the extras. What's more, his generosity afforded the man a ½ gallon of fine Gallo red Burgundy wine before he eventually departed on his journey.
"Why?" little Marie asked her father about aiding the homeless and added, "He's just a bum."
"Maybe so, but you don't know the story about him," her father said.
Her father, who came over when he was 14 years old, would regularly go to bed hungry as a child and grew to appreciate everything he had been blessed with in life. He had a saying for little Marie: "If I can't help someone who is down and hungry, then I'm not much of a man."
"It's remarkable," Assali says of her father's generosity for others.
Today, little Marie Assali is all grown-up and is the chairperson for the Legacy of Hope fundraiser, which raises funds for the United Samaritans Foundation (USF)-a charity that is determined to make sure nobody goes hungry in Stanislaus County.
USF was founded in 1994 as a nonprofit corporation to serve the needs of low income residents and the homeless in Stanislaus County by providing them with various services including a clothes closet, shower facilities, and nutritional meals delivered on mobile food service trucks."
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ash
posted 1/28/10 @ 12:01 AM PST
i was very pleased with this story , quite very touching ...
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