There was a flag-raising ceremony in the City of Utica in honor of Italian American Heritage Month. Every October, Italian American Heritage Month is celebrated. According to the Census's website, “Although Italy as a unified nation did not exist until 1861, the Italian peninsula has sent millions of its people to the shores of North America. These new arrivals thought of themselves as Neopolitans, Sicilians, Calabrians or Syracuseans.

They might not have understood each other’s dialects, but on arrival in the United States, they became Italian Americans. By the turn of the 20th century, they would be ready to change the continent once more.” This is the second flag raising by members of the Italian Heritage Club of the Mohawk Valley, which took place during the morning of Oct. 2 at Utica City Hall.