President Maria Abbamonte and Christopher Columbus (Domenico Pisapia) hold the OSIA banner just before the Columbus Day parade 2003.

Senator (and gubanatorial candidate) Jon Corzine walks through the Mercer County Italian American Festival in 2005.  Maria Abbamonte and John Scarpati escort him.

US Senator Jon Corzine poses with from left - Freeholder Brian Hughes, Georgina Pisapia, Maria Abbamonte, National OSIA representatives Sam Fumosa and Rosemarie Federik.  Also pictured is 4 year old Adriana Abbamonte.

Senator Corzine presented Sons of Italy leaders his Senate Resolution recognizing Antonio Meucci’s contribution to the development of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell has long been credited as the inventor of the first electric voice transmission device, but nearly 20 years prior, when Bell was still a boy, Meucci finalized plans for an invention he called the teletrofono which would carry the human voice great distances. He achieved voice transmission over wire in his own home decades before Bell, who we now know had improper access to Meucci’s materials. The Order Sons of Italy in America has been a long standing advocate towards this formal acknowledgment.

Mercer County Lodge members Danny Abbamonte and Kurt Clews hold the flags at the Trenton Thunder game on Italian Night in August 2005.

Mercer County Lodge President Maria Abbamonte pictured with former NY Governor Mario Cuomo.

NJ State Senator (and lodge member) Peter Inverso presents President Maria Abbamonte with a proclamation for the lodge from the state senate.