When the earthquake hit, Gina Biancardi was on an airplane flying from Naples to Rome for the tail end of her vacation and family reunion. Rome is just over a hundred miles from the epicenter of the quake that claimed at least two hundred lives.
"It’s devastating. We were just there. I love the country. I love the people," said Biancardi.
Biancardi is the founder of the Italian Cultural Foundation at Casa Belvedere in Grymes Hill. While her family in Italy is OK, the disaster still hits close to home for her, she said, especially since Staten Island has such a large concentration of Italian-Americans.
"I’d say that most of Italian American in Staten Island have either grand parents that immigrated from Italy, parents, or great grandparents," she said. "They definitely have roots. Central and south Italy is a huge point of departure for many of our ancestors."
Biancardi wanted to do more than just follow the news out of central Italy.
"We are currently galvanizing the community not just in Staten Island, but all over the United States to support in anyway they can," she said.
Biancardi is partnering with the National Italian American Foundation's Italian American Relief Fund. Money raised by the group will go towards rebuilding key structures destroyed by the Quake.
The fund is accepting financial donations online at www.italianamericanrelief.org.