Connect, interact, construct

A virtuous network for the future… of Pieve Torina - Stefano Lavorini.

A day featuring the attention and closeness to the population of the mountain municipality of Pieve Torina, badly hit by the earthquake: this the incipit of the wording published on the Boxmarche website, of which we offer the full version as a memento for those who took part at the July 8th 2017 event. But also, and it is my conviction, as an admonishment for the indolent who find it easier to look to their own interests, and for the many who only know how to complain, but who don’t want to roll up their sleeves.

The joint presentation of their full yearly reports by two companies apparently so different from each other is in itself something unusual and perhaps not yet really experienced in Italy to date. What is more in a location like Pieve Torina, not logistically favorable and fairly far away from the respective contexts in which the companies operate.

The reason for this choice is closely associated with the theme of the event “Connect, Interact, Construct. A virtuous network for the future” and it is to be sought in the deep bond between people that for years have shared a system of values and a way of entrepreneurship strongly attached to their local surrounds. For this reason, following the terrible earthquake that hit the Marches, Tonino Dominici and Sandro Paradisi presidents of Boxmarche, Corinaldo and Paradisi srl , Jesi, along with the longstanding friend Giuliano De Minicis (Art Director of the agency dmpconcept , Senigallia), mobilised to give their contribution to the communities struck by the calamity.

Right from the outset they decided to concentrate their resources on one single concrete and achievable project.
The area of Pieve Torina was chosen because, with 93% of its buildings destroyed, damaged, or declared off-limits, it was among the hardest hit, even though thankfully without victims, this thanks to the consolidation work carried out in the wake of the previous earthquake in 1997.

Prompted by the mayor, Alessandro Gentilucci, ideas concentrated on raising funds for building a new school for the children of Pieve Torina, with the specific intent of rebuilding a fulcrum, a founding nucleus for the future of the community currently dismembered and scattered amidst the various centres along the regional coastline.

Thanks to the undertaking of these initial promoters the project “Succisa Virescit” came into being, that soon went viral, channelling contributions from various organisations comprising private citizens and bodies, associations and municipal administrations. This enabled the accrual of a sizeable initial amount for the building of the new school complex, both attractive, functional and safe, that will be ready for the start of the new school year.

An ambitious, almost utopian design that came into being thanks to the participation of Fondazione Enel Cuore Onlus, of Auser and the Bezos Foundation (belonging to the parents of Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon).
Large concerns that strongly believed in the undertaking, up to contributing to achieving the set target of the completion of the teaching block measuring 1,280 sqm. The foundation work is currently underway under the supervision of Studio Petrini Solustri & Partners (who donated the project) and with the technical direction of the Settore Prevenzione e Protezione della Confederazione Nazionale Misericordie d’Italia.

A true and proper network of authentic grassroots solidarity that, with the exclusive contribution of private persons and organizations, have enabled work to begin in order in order to have things ready for the school’s inauguration, set for September 2017. It was at any rate a “virtuous network for the future”, as the event theme states, that is the emblem of how one can build something important, starting out from the interlinking and interaction of realities that are very different from each other

CRONiCLE OF EVENT
The July 8th event, conceived and carried out by Giuliano de Minicis, had a musical introduction made  by Marches musician and ethnomusicologist Roberto Lucanero who for years has "recounted" his land of origin by touring around the world as a modern and adventurous troubadour..

Mayor Alessandro Gentilucci, having greeted and thanked those present, told how the project of the new school came into being out of the encounter with the three entrepreneurs and the reasons why he considers it so important for the future to start off from the young, otherwise Pieve Torina, like many other similar populations centres, risks not surviving as a community.

Attention and closeness to the administration and the inhabitants of Pieve Torina was expressed by the president of ANCI Marche Maurizio Mangialardi, who as the mayor of Senigallia also gave a generous contribution, resulting from numerous fundraising initiatives organized by the municipal administration to help earthquake victims (as did other municipalities like Mondolfo, Corinaldo and Morro d'Alba).

On top of that, the President of the Regional Council, Antonio Mastrovincenzo, thanked «these entrepreneurs who have had the ability to interact and "contaminate" associations, institutions, private individuals, and local administrations, involving them in this solidarity project, that had as its purpose the building of a school, fundamental to the reconstruction of a community».

Representing the teaching staff of the Pieve Torina School, teacher Federica Micucci told of the difficulties encountered in managing this abnormal and complex school year, which put everybody to the test, forcing the children, their families, teachers and the school staff to great sacrifices. At the same time, it was a human experience that gave great emotions and growth opportunities.

The right honourable Piergiorgio Carrescia paid tribute to the local administrators and citizens of the territories affected by the earthquake, who he considers the true heroes who face a difficult daily life and an uncertain future with determination, ensuring the maximum collaboration of the local members of the Italian parliament.

Architect Nazareno Petrini, Petrini Solustri & Partners, explained that the design of the new school, beyond the emergency, is also an opportunity to rethink and refresh the environment in a perspective that must also include the beauty and functionality of the "civic" space made available to the community.

Nicola Fredducci, Technical Manager of the Misericordie d'Italia, explained how the latter have the delicate role as actuator, contractor, guarantor of the financiers not to mention executor of the definitive and correct implementation of the project donated by Petrini Solustri & Partners.

Presenting the Paradisi company’s Integrated Reporting, Ilaria Gasparri, a chartered accountant who supervised the drafting of the budget, revealed how one can reconcile the maximization of profits to the benefit of the common good. As the company's social objective states: "To spread a responsible and sustainable business culture to facilitate economic and social growth throughout the territory and the community" means adhering to that new business paradigm that has allowed the Paradisi company to attain the international certification of Benefit Corporation.

For his part, Cesare Tomassetti, stipulator of the Boxmarche's Living Company Report, demonstrated the centrality to his company of the commitment to create beauty, following a continuous path of responsible growth that is able to combine the company's economic value with its social value, committing itself to the benefit of its stakeholders.

Osvaldo Danzi, Human Resources specialist and founder of Fior di Risorse, highlighted how the verb "connect" has a strategic importance in a context such as that of Pieve Torina and how important the relationships and the reputations of the promoters are to the success of a project like "Succisa Virescit". The school is also the first public association where people learn to "network".

An unusual presence in an exquisitely corporate context was that of Fim Cisl Union Secretary Marco Bentivogli, who gave the measure of how seemingly opposed parts can and should contribute to the growth of businesses and people, sharing the same attention to social responsibility and rewarding the most virtuous realities.

Who better than a tightrope walker, used to walking on a suspended steel cable between two points, to talk about connections? All the more so if the subject in question is a philosopher and a believer of Zen like Andrea Loreni who, having involved all those present in a meditation exercise, explained how «in a relationship, in order for it to be both fruitful and true, one need leave behind what came before in order to see what is being offered to us by otherness, by the other with which we come into contact».

Giovanni Lanzone, co-ordinator of the Fondazione Italia Patria della Bellezza, showed how Italians tend to really only demonstrate great connectivity in the event of great symbolic occasions or great misfortunes. This event that is driven by  two companies that have decided to join forces in such special context for "connecting and building" is something unusual and truly formidable. The point is that we must be able to make this propensity a day-to-day occurrence, also considering that we are heading towards years that won't be simple with highly complex markets where sticking together makes things safer.

Massimiliano Colombi, sociologist of the WWELL Research of the Center Università Cattolica and professor of Sociology at the Istituto Teologico Marchigiano, after having debunked a series of clichés about the exasperated individualism of these times, suggested that this event could be a beginning of sort of construction site to achieve a "Charter of Faith" to "clean up the future".

Sandro Paradisi and Tonino Dominici, respectively Presidents of the Paradisi and Boxmarche companies, wound up the day by retracing the stages of the human and corporate pathway and sharing of values ​​in a continuous search for the improvement of connections and interactions with customers, co-workers, suppliers, and even more importantly with the local territory and the local communities

At the end of the event the La Spezia Rotary President Alberto Barbarini gave the promoters of the "Succisa Virescit" project a substantial donation from the club service and from a Dubai based company for the construction of the new school..
 

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