In celebration of Italian Heritage Month last fall, the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (OSDIA) held a members-only Family Photo Contest in partnership with My Italian Family, who donated a Genealogy Research Package worth $3,000 to be awarded to the contest winner. OSDIA’s National Office received hundreds of captivating submissions along with their remarkable back stories. The OSDIA Membership Committee and OSDIA Technology Committee reviewed all submissions and cast votes—and Gloria Marano of the John Pirelli Lodge #1633 located in Dayton, Ohio, was declared the winner.

Gloria, who serves as Vice President of her lodge and Trustee of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, submitted a family photo that features the Marano family celebrating Christmas in 1947 at her grandparents’ house in Brooklyn, New York. In the photo, they raise a toast as her uncle hoists a jug of her grandfather’s homemade wine. Her father, Carlo F. Marano, Sr., was a freelance photographer and took the picture.