Book Presentation

The “Italian American Sport Foundation” started its institutional activities (after several postponements due to Covid) by organizing the visit of its Ambassador, Giusy Versace, to New York, so that she could give the start to the “Italy Run” – a running competition held in Central Park on Saturday 16 July – and so she could present her book “With the Head and with the Heart you Can Go Everywhere” on July 18th at the Italian Cultural Institute. Also on July 18th, in the same place, the Italian American Sport Foundation organized a Benefit Reception which raised funds in favor of “Disabili No Limits”, the association founded by Giusy Versace.

THE EVENING:

Giusy Versace broke through the heart of the Italian community living in New York. The exciting story of her ‘second life’, the one that began on the road Salerno-Reggio Calabria on 22 August 2005 when the then 28-year-old Calabrian lost both legs following a car accident and as described in a bestseller published by Mondadori in 2013, was at the center of a meeting organized by the Italian American Sport Foundation at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, in the Park Avenue headquarters, conducted by Director Fabio Finotti and in the presence of the Consul General in New York ,Fabrizio di Michele.

Two intense hours of conversation, during which Giusy managed to move and be moved by remembering the darkest and most difficult moments of the first months after the accident, and the happiest ones linked to her rebirth, to her first victories on the athletics tracks, the participation in the Paralympic Games in Rio, the victory of ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and then again the conduction of the TV show “Sunday Sports’ on RAI 1 and, finally, entry into the Italian Parliament. A passionate hymn to life, a warning never to give up and to seek new opportunities in difficulties, which drew long applause and a few tears from the large audience present.

Still in the same venue, the evening then continued with a Benefit Reception in favor of Disabili No Limits, the association founded by Versace in 2011, and organized by the Italian American Sport Foundation. During the evening, Alessandro Pinto – Founder and President of the IASF – presented the Foundation’s Awards 2022 to the supporters of the evening, people who believed and supported the initiative from the very beginning. Stefano Versace (no relationship with Giusy), CEO of Konos Ice Cream; Matt Rizzetta, President & Founder of the North Six Group; Al DiGuido, Publisher & CEO of America Domani; Fabio Finotti, Director of the IIC of NY (Italian Cultural Institute of NY) with special mention to the staff of the Institute and in particular to Malina Mannarino for the attention and cordial collaboration offered to the event.

The dinner was enlivened by the music of Jill McCarron, winner in 1995 of the thirteenth Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville.

“I would like to thank Alessandro Pinto and the IASF for organizing this event in support of my association – says Giusy Versace – despite the numerous obstacles encountered in the last year and a half due to the pandemic, which forced them to move the date twice. The result was not to be taken for granted and I found a special and cordial welcome not only in the audience present, but also and above all by the IIC and the Italian Consulate in New York, who did not lack their support for the cause and for this I am really grateful. It was a precious opportunity that enriched me by allowing me to personally meet the President of the Sons of Italy Foundation in America Joseph Sciame, of whose association (OSDIA – Order of Sons and Daughters of Italy in America) I was also named honorary member in 2021.

Exciting evening at the Institute of Culture, thanks to the presence of Giusy Versace who opened the Italy Run in Central Park last Saturday.

Interviewed by the Director of the Institute, Fabio Finotti, and greeted by Fabrizio di Michele, Consul General in New York, Giusy Versace thrilled and moved the audience that crowded the halls of the Institute.

Thanks to her we understood that sport is not just sport.

From sportswoman Giusy becomes an athlete just when life seems to tell her that transformation is impossible. A terrible car accident and an old guard-rail took off her legs, yet just then the metamorphosis took place.

Just then. When the decision is whether to look back, in pity forever, die inside, or look forward. Sport becomes an instrument of rebirth. Sport gave Giusy a new life, new goals, new stimuli, inspiring a different vision of handicap, experienced and witnessed in person.

Perhaps the presence of his father at the event accentuated the emotion in Giusy’s voice. Or perhaps it is part of her splendid energy that she takes things head-on, always putting her heart next to her brain, as the title of the book that tells her story reads and that yesterday many people asked her to sign: “With head and heart you go everywhere. The story of my new life”(Milan, Mondadori).

“They told me to let it go. They told me that I was no longer a teenager and that I could not expect to become a sportswoman. They told me I was “shaking my butt” too much to have artificial legs …”.

Since then Versace has passed the selections for the London Paralympics in 2012, won a European record in Turin, set an Italian record in 2016 and participated into the 400 Meters Final at the Rio Paralympics. In all, she has won 11 titles in Italy where she still holds the 60m indoor record for her category.

Not satisfied with competitive sport, she ventured into that complicated intersection between art and athletics that is dance. And she didn’t just participate in Dancing with the Stars in 2014, she won the competition.

“When I entered Dancing with the Stars I was worried – she said. – I knew that I would be in the spotlight even more than in my sporting experience. But that was what I wanted. Not only to prove to myself, but to show to everyone who have an handicap like me, that life tells us not to stop. Life is calling us, and to face it we need to raise, not lower the bar “.

From there, Giusy’s commitment was also born both in politic and in the social sphere with her “Disabili no Limits” Association.

An artificial limb – she explained – can cost thousands of euros. Not everyone can afford it, and not even the National Health Service often can afford it. Everything that I am able to collect with my non-profit organization. it is used to give those who are less fortunate than me the opportunity to get back on the move, to be autonomous. It can be a leg, an arm, sometimes a wheelchair. All that helps to make disabled people independent gives their dignity back ”.

We understand, it is not a question of giving help only to the disabled. It is a way of giving help even those who are not disabled or do not know they are disabled (after all, we are all disabled in one way or another). Giusy with her life, her words, her battles, her races and her adventures, has managed to change not only the lives of many disabled people, but the perception that the world has of them.

“I remember – she said – when I used to go to the beach years ago. I took a bath, went back to the beach. And I had to take off my legs to empty them of the water. Many around me murmured poor thing … what a misfortune! Now many say “Have you seen? Is Giusy Versace!” They see me, not my handicap”.

People, this is what’s at the center of Giusy’s world. People. Each with his/her handicap, each with his/hermiracle.

In short, a record-breaking evening. In which we understood that sometimes life takes away a lot to give even more.

EVENING PROGRAM

6.00 PM Giusy Versace interviewed by Prof. Fabio Finotti, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, about Giusy’s life changing experience and all her achievements after the accident which left her without both legs at the age of 28.

Presentation will be followed by a book signing session by the author (please reserve your copy now at info@iasport.org – Cost of the book $20.00)

7.30 PM BENEFIT RECEPTION

RSVP Cost of the Dinner $500 x person

Giusy Versace is the founder of the “Disabili no Limits” Foundation which provide artificial limbs and customized prostheses to children and adolescents. Following the book presentation there will be a Benefit Reception in her honor and money raised will go to her Foundation.

The Book Presentation taking place on Monday 18th at the Italian Cultural Institute. Founded in 1961, its mission is to promote Italian languages and cultures in the United States. 

The Italian Cultural Institute is located in a stately building in the 1919 neo-Georgian/neo-Federal style building that faces onto Park Avenue between 68thand 69th Streets.