Club News

Come Join the Excitement!

Next Membership Meeting: 

Our Next Membership Meeting is: Saturday February 14th at 6:00 pm at the Will Roger Gardens Exhibition Center 3400 NW 36th St., Oklahoma City----this will be our annual ICO Valentine's party!

Valentine’s Day Party

Come join us for our annual Valentine’s Day party Saturday, February 14th at 6 p.m. at the Will Rogers Garden Center. 

IT’S FREE!!!!! JOIN US FOR A VALENTINE’S DAY CELEBRATION!

ITALIANS OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA

Cordially Invites You To Our Annual Valentine’s Day Party

Party Details:

When: Saturday, February 14th Starting at 6:00 pm

Where: Will Roger Gardens Exhibition Center

Caterer: Italia Express

Cost: Free to members in good standing. 

Nonmembers and Guests pay $10.00.  Make checks payable to ICO and mail them to Steve at 12500 Kingsbrook Rd., OKC, 73142.

Dress: Casual nice

Evening Agenda:

6:00 to 7:00 Social Hour with Appetizers.

7:00 to 8:00 Dinner

8:00…White Elephant Raffle, Valentines game and socialization.

The menu:

Appetizers

Salad

Dinner Entrees:

Choice of Meat Lasagna or Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken.

Dinner includes salad and bread with Garlic butter. Dessert!

Important!!!

Because time is short it is important that you let us know you’re coming no later than February 9th so we can order the appropriate amount of food. It is important that you let us know since we ran really close on food last year.  Call or text Steve at (405) 740-4119.  E-mail: StephenLong10@gmail.com.

White Elephant Raffle

Please remember to bring an Item for the White Elephant Raffle. Remember, when you participate in the raffle, you help your Club.

My Italian Secret

One of our members donated a CD entitled “My Italian Secret” which is a documentary film about the story of cycling idol Gino Bartali, Dr. Giovanni Borromeo, and other courageous Italians who carried out ingenious schemes to rescue Jews, partisans, and refugees from Nazi-occupied Italy. If you are interested in borrowing this CD, let me know.

ICO Flyers

Help promote the Club. Don’t forget to bring flyers to places that you go to regularly. If you need some, let Steve know.  Thank you for your help in promoting the Club!

Great News!

ICO has been approved as a Legacy Partner under the Will Rogers Gardens program. As such, the Club will be eligible to reserve the meeting room at the old rates.

New ICO souvenirs and novelty Items

We are really excited to roll-out our new collection of ICO souvenirs and novelty items! You can find them on the Italian Souvenirs and Novelty Page of our website. A big thank you to Sonny and Dawn for helping us get it started. Some of the items available include shirts, cups, hoodies, bags, accessories and of course our very own ICO T-Shirts. Check out the selection today!

Get well soon

Best wishes to Craig and Larry for a speedy recovery. If you know someone is sick, please let the Board know so we can put it in the newsletter. 

2026 Club Dues

Sandra will be accepting your dues at the next meeting. Make sure you get a receipt from her as that is the only way we know if you paid your dues or not.  If you like, you can mail your check to Steve at 12500 Kingsbrook Rd., Oklahoma City, OK 73142.

New Activities

A couple of new activities have been suggested for the Club. One is to have Italian lessons and the second possible activity is to have an Italian sing-a-long karaoke-type night. If these activities sound of interest to you, please let me know and we will make it happen.

Novelty News

If you would like to order new novelty items from our website, goto the ICO Novelty & Souvenir page. ICO items make great gifts!

Our Next Meeting Dates are: January 10th 2026. July and August are vacation months and the club will not meet and there will be no newsletters. January 10th, February 14th March 14th, April 11th & May 9th  and June 13th 2026.

A big ICO WELCOME to our new member(s) and Guest(s)

Alex Gianfilippo joined the Club in January 2026. ICO says welcome Alex to our family!

Meeting Day & Time News

Steve talked to the Will Rogers Garden Center personel about possible meeting day and time changes. They told him that the current room is booked for the Saturday noon slot until October.  They did have some alternatives, however, they were speratic, for example March 14, we can start at 5pm, April 11, can start at 3pm, May 9th and September 12, we can start at 5pm, on October 10th anytime, for November we can start at 5pm.  Issue we need to discuss is do we want to have sporatic meeting times or be consistant. Let’s discuss at next meeting.

50/50 Raffle: The raffle allows a 50/50 split (50% the winner) of the money collected from the tickets that the club sells at each meeting and 50% goes to support our club fund. Buy a ticket. Help your Club. No raffle held at the December meeting.

Happy Birthday/Anniversary: The ICO club wishes happy Birthday/ Anniversary to all those members who had/have Birthdays/Anniversary this month.

ICO Facebook page!! Please visit our new ICO Facebook page! You can find it by doing a search for: Italians of Central Oklahoma – ICO. Please like us on Facebook so you can follow our postings, and you can post too, to keep Club members informed of what you are doing. Many thanks to Bill Velten for setting it up.

Come Help Decorate

We need volunteers to help set up and decorate the place. So please come a little early and help set up tables and chairs.

Newsletter Articles

I would like to publish some articles/pictures about our members in the newsletters. If you have something that is news worthy like weddings, births, anniversaries or an interesting life story and would like to see us publish it in the newsletter, please let me know.  Thank you.

ICO Movie Library: We have over 50 movies that you can borrow for FREE from the Club’s movie library—we only ask that you sign them out and return them during the next meeting. A big thank you goes to Joe LaRocca for making these movies available to us. Thanks Joe! The list of ICO movies that are available for you to borrow for FREE from the Club’s movie library are now on our website. The list is under the Links and Resources Tab as an attachment.

Send me Jokes--I need jokes. If you have some send them to me. My e-mail is: stephenlong10@gmail.com.

ICO Website: Want information about your club? Who was the first president? Who founded the Italian club? When was it established? Old newsletters? You can find the answers on our Website. Use it! 

Patronize our Sponsors: Please help your club by patronizing those businesses that advertise on our website. Let them know that you saw their ad on the ICO website. Ask other businesses if they would like to advertise in our newsletter and web site. Our website has received more than 11,000 inquiries. The cost is $60 per year. Please remember that the proceeds go toward Club operating expenses.

  WHAT’S HAPPENING

PLEASE SEND US YOUR INFORMATION. WE CAN'T PRINT IT, IF YOU DON'T SEND IT!!!

Send your “Club News” items to

Steve at StephenLong10@gmail.com