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THE BENVENUTO INTERNATIONAL CLUB OF VARESE
The Benvenuto Club offers
a wide range of activities to its members. In addition,
members receive a monthly newsletter mailed to their homes
with all the month's activities, latest news, and classified
ads.
Benefits of becoming a
member:
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The chance to make
new friends with women from around the world and participate
in various activities.
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The monthly newsletter,
The Voice of Varese. Along with the club news, the
calendar of activities, forthcoming events, etc.,
members may post notices and advertise their products
or services.
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On-line Community,
which enables members to communicate freely outside
Benvenuto Club meetings, offering a message board
for personal notices, and discussion forums on various
topics.
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New members pack
with practical tips for adjusting to life in Italy
and other useful information such as lists of English-speaking
babysitters and doctors and things to see around the
area.
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Members Directory
(updated yearly).
A monthly coffee
morning is its principal social function and is free
to members. Visitors and newcomers to Benvenuto and Varese
are always welcome and can attend twice at a cost of 5
euros each visit. A visitor who decides to become
a member at that coffee morning will, of course, be reimbursed
her 5 euros visitor's fee.
Full Membership
fee (includes access to all activities): 55
euros/year, September to September.
Membership Renewal fee (this includes
late renewal): 55 euros/year.
Voice of Varese only-member (includes access
only to the online community): 20 euros/year.
New Members' LATE joiner (after
February, only for new members): 30 euros/half-year.
Coffee
Mornings
When: 10am-12pm, second Wednesday of each month (excl.
July & August)
Where: Casciago Sporting Club, Via Giacomo Matteotti 84,
Casciago
To find out more information about becoming a member,
please send an email to info@benvenutovarese.org.
You may also come to our next coffee morning and check
it out before joining. Please email us or consult our
calendar for more information.
A BENVENUTO MEMBER'S
EXPERIENCE …
After escaping from Hungary
at the age of ten, then growing up and being educated
in New York, I was sent in my early twenties to Italy
for a six-month consulting job that continued for over
30 years. Living in Milan and spending all my time at
the office (in a series of major computer companies),
I had no need of external help to integrate myself into
the local culture (my Italian husband and collegues took
care of that). My crisis occurred when I took early retirement
and moved with my husband to his new job in Varese, where
we knew absolutely nobody. That’s when I discovered
the unique experience of “expatriate life”:
time on your hands in a new environment and nobody to
share it with. Of course I knew the language by then,
which was a big plus. However, finding people with shared
interests (books, art, films, archeology, computers),
who were also open to new friendships, was a whole other
challenge!
After a year “alone”
in Varese, I was lucky enough to be “picked up”
by a friendly Benvenuto member at an English-language
film showing; she gave me information about this Club
that I had never heard of. At my very first Coffee Morning
I met my current best friend, who gave me a ride to the
Library where I discovered an endless source of reading
material. While involving myself in Club activities, I
met hundreds of new people and had many interesting experiences.
I was even able to use my professional knowledge, setting
up a Club website and helping others to “jump the
across the digital divide” (now that personal computers
are everywhere but not everyone feels up to facing and
using them) with a course called “Computers for
fraidy-cats.”
Even after my four
years of working with the Benvenuto Board were over (two
as Membership Secretary, one as Responsible for New Members,
and one as President), the club has remained a very important
part of my life. Now I try to extend the same welcome
that I received when I joined!
Marian
Farago
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