Monessen, PA is about 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh in the Monongahela Valley.
Once a city of 19,000, it now has a population of 8600.

The Italian Society of Mutual Aid (ISMA) was organized in 1903. ISMA flourished for 7 decades, and the good times lasted until the 70's when the steel mills suffering negatively impacted ISMA. There was a time when they had dwindled to seven members.

Now they have bounced back to 500 members and a flurry of activities.

The Secret? Not so Complex!!!   Officers worked hard to attract a YOUNGER crowd and make the club more FAMILY-oriented, without forgetting the OLDER members.

The spectrum of needs were met, they melded, and became a huge extended family.

You can do the same!
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ITALIAN CLUB THRIVING AGAIN

VALLEY INDEPENDENT
By Jeff Oliver
Wednesday, April 28, 2004

In 34 years as a member of the Italian Society of Mutual Aid, Fred Naccarato has lived the roller coaster life his club has experienced.

"I can remember in the 1960s and early '70s when you had to leave a Monessen football game at the beginning of the fourth quarter," Naccarato recalled.

"Then you had to take the red dog road behind the stadium and drive like heck to get to the club and hope you could find a seat at the bar." Times changed quickly after that, however.

"In the '80s, there was a lack of enthusiasm. There were maybe six or seven of us who went to the club," he said. "We couldn't pay our bills. We were sitting on idle. "I thought we were just going to whittle away."

Today, the ISMA's story is different. The club has a new home on Seventh Street in the city, a building it originally rented and eventually bought.

The club has more than 500 members, including more than 300 social members.

And the numbers are growing. In 2003, the ISMA celebrated its 100th anniversary in a big way, staging a free banquet for more than 300 people at St. Spyridon Hellenic Center in Monessen.

At the same time, some 200 social members were treated to a free party at the club.

"Any event we have now is better than what we had in the '80s and '90s," Naccarato said.

"We have parties for the holidays, parties for football games. We have karaoke, dances. We have hosted political rallies.

"It's really amazing to see where we are," he said with a proud smile.

"Did I think we'd get back to this? Honestly? No. No way."

Proud history

The ISMA was built with pride and Italian spirit. Efforts to organize the club were initiated in 1900 by a few Italian immigrants who had settled in the city.

In March, 1903, the club was incorporated. In the early days, meetings were held in private homes. However, the club's membership grew so large that leaders decided to seek a building.

The club bought two lots in the center of town in 1916. In 1923, a building committee was authorized to formulate plans for a new building.

To finance the large project, the ISMA decided to borrow $35,000 in first mortgage bonds and to sell $20,000 in second mortgage bonds to the Italians of Monessen -- all repayable in seven years.

The new hall, which was the largest in the Monongahela Valley at the time, was completed and furnished at a cost of $82,000. It was dedicated on Dec. 22, 1924.

After the club survived a tough Prohibition Era and the Great Depression, it flourished thanks to a dance hall that drew such famous acts as Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, Lawrence Welk and Tex Beneke.

The good times lasted for several decades.

Lean years

By the middle of the 1970s, the steel mills were suffering and so was the ISMA. "In the '70s, we were really losing money," recalled Tony Mascetta, a 50-year member and former officer.

"Money was not coming in as fast as it was going out. "I remember, one time, we had a gas bill in February ... I think it was 1977 ... That gas bill was over $1,400 and I wasn't sure we could pay it.

We had such a hard time of it at that time." "There was a time when we couldn't pay some of our bills," admitted Tom Dalfonso, a member for 35 years, including the last 12 as an officer.

"We have a $600 death benefit and there was a time in the '70s when we had to cut it back to $250 because we couldn't afford to pay it." Times were so bad that, on occasion, some members had to be called upon to financially bail out the club.

The late Thomas Dalfonso, a life member and former mayor of Monessen, often answered the call when the club was in financial need.

Dalfonso and Bob Troilo tried to get the club back on track by holding oldies dances. "We brought in the Five Satins, the Angels, the Box Tops and others," Dalfonso said. "It didn't work. We just couldn't get the crowds." "We lost our butts doing that," said Troilo, a life member who tended bar in the '70s.

"We just didn't have the business any more. We weren't making enough money to pay the bills." Lawrence Masci, the club's current financial secretary, was the president during some of those rough times.

"The death benefits were piling up and people were asking when they'd get the money," Masci said. "We just weren't doing any business. I'll bet we had less than 10 social members at one time."

Masci said the club was forced to take out share loans to pay bills in the mid-'80s. "We were barely staying afloat," Masci said. "We were about finished."

The club got a reprieve when it sold its building to Bob Shalansky, who operated a successful kitchen, The Italian Hall, inside the facility.

"We sold the building for $45,000 and that probably saved us at that time," Masci said. Yes, the club was alive then, but the pulse was faint.

By 1999, when the ISMA's lease with Shalansky expired, the owner of the building told the club it was time to leave.

A once-proud Italian club was pushed out of the very building its members worked so hard to construct more than 70 years before.

The revitalization

"I thank Bobby Shalansky every day for two reasons," Naccarato said.

"One, he bought the building and improved our finances at a time when we really needed it.

And, two, he decided it was time for us to move on. "That was the spark we needed."

All the long-time members point to the move in 1999 as the beginning of the revitalization effort.

"When we found our new home, that was the start," said Mascetta of the club's current location at 112 Seventh St.

"It wasn't pretty, at first. But it got us going." The club members leased the main floor of the building from the Monessen VFW.

"There were no utilities when we first saw it," Mascetta said. "The place was a wreck." "We walked through it with flashlights," recalled Masci. "It needed a ton of work." "That place was a total disaster when we first saw it," Dalfonso said. "It had a bar, but that was it.

"But we had no place else to go. We had to make this work." Masci said the club dumped a substantial amount of money into the new site for renovations to get it open.

"When we got booted out of the other building, that kind of rejuvenated a lot of guys to get back involved," Masci said.

After the new ISMA club opened, a concerted effort was made to get new members. Officers worked hard to attract a younger crowd and make the club more family-oriented. "When we came down here, we all worked for nothing," Mascetta said.

"I worked for 18 months at the club for free. We wanted to get this thing going." And "going" is exactly what the club did. Naccarato gave a lot of the credit to the club's current president, Jeff Francia.

"Jeff's worked hard to help get us back," Naccarato said. "We all worked hard. But any club is only as good as its leader."

By 2003, the ISMA was financially solvent enough that it purchased the building from the VFW. "We can do things now that we couldn't do at the old club," Masci said.

"We have a lot more active people who contribute in our functions and take part in our events. "Not only do we have more young members, but a lot of the older guys come out to the meetings.

Now, we can legally hold meetings. At one time, we couldn't."

"We're more than a club now," Naccarato said. "It's kind of like one big extended family.

"The club jumps again. I don't know if it's like it was in the heydays, but it's pretty darn good."

"We've opened the club up now so that it is a place for our wives and children and their children to come to," Dalfonso said. "It is a truly a family club."

The club opened its kitchen and currently serves members and their guests every Wednesday and Friday. "The kitchen is a big part of our success," Naccarato said.

"When we first opened it, we'd do like $100 or $150 and be happy. We've had nights now when we've done $500-$600. That isn't too bad, huh?"

Pride restored

Although the rebirth of the ISMA is something all of its members are proud of, none would admit to feeling that the club would survive its latest tough time.

"During the '40s and '50s, that club made $100,000 a year profit," said Anthony "Tote" Reda, a former president and a member for 54 years. "It was one of the finest clubs in the whole valley. And after the '70s hit, I thought it was dead."

"I thought we were defunct," said Dalfonso. "There was no way I thought this club would rebound like it did."

"I kind of figured we were done," admitted Naccarato. "I figured this was it." "You look back and we were close to extinction," said Masci. "I didn't think we could do this."

"I thought the club was dead," said Troilo. "I never thought they'd get it back up and running like they did. Those guys hustled. I give them credit."

One word all of the long-time members use to describe the way they feel about their club today is "proud." "It really makes me proud to be an Italian and a member. I'm proud of where we are today as a club," said Dalfonso. "How can you not be proud of what we accomplished by working hard together?"

"I see so many people active in the club now, young and old, and it does make me proud," said Masci. "I think we've done a good job of getting more younger members while not forgetting about the older members who made this club and kept it going," said Francia.

"I'm proud that, as Italian-Americans, we've been able to bridge the age gap and bring this club back from what was almost death. "You look around here now and you know we are on the right track.

And there are a lot of people who care about this place." "It makes you feel proud, proud of your Italian heritage, proud of the hard work," said Naccarato. "It's a totally different attitude around here now. "Maybe it was the thought of losing the club that was the spark," he added.

"Whatever it was, it obviously worked."

Jeff Oliver can be reached at joliver@tribweb.com or (724)684-2666.

Italian Club thriving again - PittsburghLIVE.com
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