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Because Joe Rossi needs to raise $300,000 to erect a statue in Parkrose paying tribute to Portland's immigrants, he is bringing back the popular Barn Bash to his family farm on Saturday, July 9, from 6 p.m. to midnight
LEE PERLMAN and TIM CURRAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Ten years ago, while visiting Favale di Malvaro, Joe Rossi's family ancestral village in Italy, he said seeing the Monument to the Emigrant statue inspired him to erect a reverse tribute to immigrants in Portland. COURTESY ROSSI FAMILY |
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| For the price of admission, everyone gets a heaping helping of barbecued chicken, potato or macaroni salad, rolls and maybe even some strawberry shortcake for dessert. Mid-county Memo Photo/Tim Curran |
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| At the 2002 Barn Bash, Amelia Salvador, far right, who began as a volunteer, now runs the show through her special events business, Trinity Marketing & Multimedia. Mid-county Memo Photo/Tim Curran |
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| Created by local sculptor Jim Gion, The Portland Immigrant Statue will be unveiled Oct. 1 in the traffic island at Northeast 99th Ave. and Sandy Boulevard. COURTESY JOE ROSSI |
After a three-year hiatus, the Rossi Farms Barn Bash revival is Saturday, July 9.
For 10 years, 1998-2007, it was a cherished annual event held as a benefit for Parkrose youth sports and other activities. Reflecting the deviation from the mission of his original non-profit corporation, Rossi changed the mission, board members, and the name last year from Parkrose Youth Activities Fund to Parkrose Community Foundation. However, despite the primary name and mission change, Rossi said he would continue to support the original foundation's primary beneficiary, the Aldo Rossi/Youth Football Program, the largest in Portland.
Hosted by Rossi at his family's farm, 3839 N.E. 122nd Ave., Parkrose Community Foundation Marketing & Events Director Amy Salvador produces this year's hoedown through her company, Trinity Marketing & Multimedia. As in year's past, there will be all-you-can eat meal of barbecued chicken, beans, green and potato salad, a no-host bar serving beer and wine, courtesy of Widmer Brothers, and just possibly a dessert. Inside the barn there will be dancing with live music by Backstage Pass. Outside, a feature of past Barn Bashes, Wild West show re-creator Tom Mannen and his Turkey Creek Productions will be back to perform Wild West shootouts, perhaps with audience participation, to music by The Crazed Weasels. Other highlights of this year's party include a Civil War cannon demonstration and, Rossi's class - Parkrose, 1981 - is holding its 30-year reunion at the barbecue too.
Barn Bash boss Salvador herself graces the poster promoting the event in a photo fronting the Rossi Posse - the group of long-time volunteers who help Salvador produce the show. “I'm extremely excited to be producing this special Barn Bash event for 2011 being that it's the Parkrose community's 100 Year Anniversary,” Salvador said in a news release. “As I speak with community members, there is so much enthusiasm and high anticipation for this year's Barn Bash, since our last event was in 2007. She adds, “My goal is for all Barn Bash attendees to come and enjoy the event and to leave with the pride and the awareness of this historic milestone 100 years of our Parkrose community.”
Rossi and Salvador's shared interest in producing special events began when they met in 2000 during the re-constitution of the moribund Parkrose Neighborhood Association. Their first collaboration was a PNA event, the Parkrose Harvest Festival, held at the farm in 2001. Later, Rossi hired Salvador to be farm bookkeeper. He handed her the Barn Bash reins in 2006.
Initially the Barn Bash was held in conjunction with the production, and public screening, of a series of amateur movies about good guy sheriff Parker Rose, who defended his community against a variety of bad guys. Directed by Mannen, the films starred members of the community, with Rossi playing the hero, Parker Rose. It ended in 2007.
When the Rossis ceased farming in 2006, they leased the land to neighbor Albert Garre, who farms the land today.
Rossi said the reasons for stopping the popular event in 2007 included his father's illness - Aldo Rossi passed away in 2009 - because he was simply exhausted and because after closing the farm, his workers were not there to help ready the farm to receive more than 1,500 people.
Tickets are $20 the night of the event, $15 if purchased ahead of time. To volunteer, or buy tickets, call Salvador at 503-789-0161 or amy_rossifarms@comcast.net or e-mail Joe Rossi jjoerossi@mac.com. The Barn Bash has a Facebook page: Facebook.com/pages/BARN-BASH/145105355558156.
Rossi also reminds us this year marks the 100th anniversary of Parkrose as a community. “Hey, it's our birthday!” he told the Memo. "We can't let this opportunity to celebrate go past. Come to the party.” The three separate events are entitled “Parkrose 100 Years Centennial Celebration.” This month's Barn Bash is the first, where profits from the night will also help pay for the other two events.
The second will be a free All Ages Movie Night at the farm Saturday, Sept. 10. (Because alcohol is served at the Barn Bash, it is adults only.)
The third event - also divided into three parts - takes place Saturday, Oct. 1.
A ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the installation of Rossi's latest venture, a statue of an immigrant by sculptor James Gion on the north side of the traffic island where Northeast Killingsworth Street and Sandy Boulevard meet at 99th Avenue is first. After speeches by city officials and local dignitaries part two, a parade from the site to Parkrose High School gets underway - Rossi delegated parade production to the Parkrose Business Association. At the school, more speechifying followed by Rossi conducting dignitaries cutting the first pieces of the 100-year anniversary birthday cake caps the final portion of the “Parkrose 100 Years Centennial Celebration.”
Rossi got the inspiration for the statue about 10 years ago while visiting Favale di Malvaro, his ancestral family village in Italy. Rossi said he was deeply affected by the experience of seeing the Monument to the Emigrant statue. “I was really moved. You know when you see a movie and you are moved to your core, I was really moved that this small village of people (population 500) commissioned a statue to celebrate all their descendants that came to America.”
So, 10 years later when the Parkrose Business Association was looking for ideas what to do to with the traffic island they were maintaining, Rossi remembered the statue and pitched the PBA board on collaborating to build a statue with his non-profit and Salvador's company (she is also on the PBA's board of directors). The rest, as they say, is history.
In addition to the statue itself, plans call for re-landscaping, creation of a public plaza, and a low wall with text on the island for sponsor plaques. The total cost of the venture is about $300,000, including the creation of miniatures of the statue and commemorative coins sold for fundraising, and long-term maintenance. Major contributors so far include U.S. Bank, Providence Medical Systems and LRS Architects, as well as “six individuals who have contributed between $1,000 and $10,000 apiece,” Rossi says. The statue is a tribute to both the early and current residents of Parkrose, which has always had a large contingent of immigrant families. It will be facing north toward Portland International Airport and what were historically farms tilled by Italian immigrant farmers.
Many have speculated that the statue is a tribute to Joe's father, the late Aldo Rossi. Joe denies this, and says that in fact, at his direction Gion, a Parkrose resident, created the statue's face as a composite of six photographs, each a member of a different ethnic group. Rossi claims the most important inspiration was Pietro Cassinelli, a prominent resident from an earlier era. Coincidentally, the statue site is across the street from the location of the original DeBenedetti farm.
When placed, the Portland Immigrant Statue joins a dozen other North American cities with similar versions: St. Louis, Mo.; New York City (Battery Park) and Buffalo, N.Y.; Tampa, Fla.; Columbus and Clinton, Ohio; Boston Mass.; Philadelphia, Pa.; New Orleans, La.; Holland, Mich.; Seattle, Wash. and Toronto, Ontario.
For more information about the Portland Immigrant Statue project, visit the website: portlandstatue.org, or the Facebook page. To donate to the project or to purchase sponsorship, e-mail Statue Project Marketing Director Salvador at amelia@portlandstatue.org or call Rossi at 503-753-9671.
“I'm doing the Barn Bash (this year) because I'm fired up about our 100th Anniversary,” Rossi said. “I'm for sure, for sure, doing this one. If it turns out good, and I think it will, and I feel comfortable, then I'll kick-start it and make it an annual event again.”
Music to many ears Joe.
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