April 29th, 2016
On Friday April 29th, the New Jersey Italian Heritage Commission presented Frank Campione with the Commission’s Collodi award. The award recognizes a New Jersey educator who has done an exceptional job at integrating Italian and Italian American material into the classrom by drawing upon lessons from the NJIHC Universality of Italian Heritage Curriculum.
The award is named after Carlo Collodi, Italian creator of the famous fairytale Pinocchio. NJIHC Chairman Robert DiBiase presented Mr. Campione with his award at “La Festa Delle Luci, “Notingham High School’s 4th Annual Fundraiser, which was held in Nottingham Ballroom in Hamilton. The event featured live music, dancing, good food, and hundreds of happy guests.
Mr. Campione is both a teacher of Italian and the leader of The Nottingham Italian Club. Mr. Campione famously uses Pinocchio as a mascot, utilizing the protagonist to show students the importance of truth and character development along with the Language Arts. As such, the award placque fittingly includes a figurine of Pinocchio.
