Rotary Club Morimondo Abbey

[Article by Silvia Lodi Pasini published on “Settegiorni”]  – At Christmas, the Rotary Club Morimondo Abbazia decided to give plastic form to its mission of helping children in need. It has done so with "The tree of welcome" of the CAF Association, Centro Aiuto Minori e Famiglie, which since 1979 has been welcoming and caring for child victims of abuse and mistreatment and offering important support to their families in crisis.

The reception tree was set up at Trattoria San Bernardo in Morimondo, which is the club's headquarters. "We want to renew our closeness to CAF projects by supporting them and making them known," explained President Davide Carnevali. The Reception Tree is inside the trattoria and can be visited until the Epiphany. It is decorated with beautiful decorations, bundles and small houses, entirely handmade by the children and young guests of CAF in Milan and by the volunteers of the reception centre, but also by some shaped paper balls made by the children of the Rainbow section of the Morimondo kindergarten. The Reception Tree was created by Café volunteer and supporter Angelo Garini, an architect, designer, event organizer and book author. His collaboration with the Association, born by making his own creativity available, then took on a more practical aspect and closer to the children. The CAF welcomes three Communities of little ones: Elves, Gnomes and Goblins. In addition, it also has a Teen Community and a start-up project for independence for young people who have reached the age of majority, but who still need support. "For the preparation of the Reception Tree, Garini wanted to tell two important moments of the journey that every child makes when they arrive in a community: arrival and reception first, and then – explained CAF volunteers Paola Rossini and Flavia Cozzi – Each child on arrival symbolically carries a "bundle" of anxieties and concerns, while the project that CAF does for him is to give him a house, hence the representation of the little house on the tree, which represents a new start".
Silvia Lodi Pasini