Mario Bettanin

Orphan|date=September 2008

Introduction

Mario Bettanin was born in Northern Italy on September 23rd 1933. His parents were Sylvia Caterina Silvestri and Antonio Bettanin. He was the 2nd oldest of 5 siblings and migrated to Australia in the 1950s. He then met his wife, Guiliana Caverzan in their home town of Shepparton, where they still live in the house where they raised their 7 children. Mario worked for the Australian Wool Spinners as a manager and is now retired and spends the majority of his time in community service and spending time with his family.

Family

Mario is the proud father of 7 children, Rudy, Elisa, Sylvia, Susie, Julie, Anthony and Eric. He also has 10 grandchildren, Donica, Michael, Molly, Alanna, Jordan, Lousie, Zoë, Gabrielle , Zane and Tor.

Community Service

Over the last 30 years, Mr. Bettanin has performed a number of community-based roles in the ethnic affairs area. These include: Italian Consul representative (2001 - current); past committee member, vice president and president of the Shepparton Multicultural Hostel (8 years total); St Mel’s Catholic Church Parish Council (8 years); Councillor for the Shepparton City Council (4 years); Triple “C” ( a police and community committee – 3 years); Italnet assistant coordinator since 2001; Italian Consul representative on the Italian services Advisory Council since 2000 and past vice president of the Shepparton Italian Catholic Federation. The above represent a very small sample of the years of dedicated service given to Shepparton’s Italian community by Mr. Bettanin. As a volunteer, he has also been involved in many other general community services such as Rotary (33 years); Scouts (15 years); Meals on Wheels (25 years); acted as treasurer and council member for the Shepparton South Technical School (8 years) and continues to play a vital role in services to the elderly as a member of the CoAsIt Home Visiting Service Program since 2001. The above is also a small sample of Mr. Bettanin’s efforts in the wider community. Such distinguished service to this community has enriched the lives of many people that Mr. Bettanin has come in contact with over the years. Special mention has to be made in relation to his service to the Italian Community. As the Italian Consul correspondent – he gives up a considerable amount of his time in serving the people who require such services. Mr Bettanin is available at all hours of the day including weekends. As a volunteer of this service, Mr. Bettanin often has to use his own finances to assist people in completing Passport Applications and other documents. At times he spent hours on the telephone chasing up documents and information for his fellow Italians. Such services are very important for people living in rural areas such as Shepparton and his contribution is to be commended! In 2004 Mr. Bettanin hosted the Italian Consul on an official visit to Northern Victoria. He was instrumental in planning the Consul’s tour of the region that enabled the Consul to meet hundreds of people from the Italian community in a variety of settings. I spoke with the Consul during the tour and was most impressed with the respect and appreciation shown by the Consul towards Mr. Bettanin and his efforts in organising the official tour. Efforts were made in the mid 90s to establish a multicultural hostel in Shepparton to meet the needs of people from the ethnic community. Mr. Bettanin gave many years of service to this project from raising money to leading the group as vice president and president for a period of 8 years. Mr Bettanin was also a member of the executive committee of the local ethnic council for over 10 years. Mr. Bettanin’s efforts extended into local government and he served as a councillor for the City of Shepparton for a period of 4 years. He was able to utilise his linguistic skills in assisting members of the Italian community in their own language and bring to Council the specific needs of the elderly for appropriate consideration of his fellow councillors. I am aware that many members of the Italian community were very disappointed at the lack of representation available to them when Mr. Bettanin left the Council in the late 90s. Since 2000, Mr.Bettanin has played a vital role on the Italian Services Advisory Council (ISAC) - providing a link between the Council and the Italian Government structures in Australia. He also became very active in developing a Skills net project conducted by ISAC and has served the project since 2001 as an assistant coordinator and tutor. Mr. Bettanin assisted (in Italian) those members of the Italian community that received tuition on how to use the Internet. More recently, Mr Bettanin has volunteered his Italian linguistic skills to produce a weekly radio broadcast with Vision Australia that aims to deliver a specialised service to elderly members of the Italian community. The radio program involves a group of eight individuals taking turn to read interesting articles from the national Italian newspaper Il Globo. Such program provides an essential service to Italian elderly who have difficulties reading newspapers or coping with the English media that basically provides access to those who read and understand the English language. The program has only been going since early January of this year – but its popularity is growing each week. Mr. Bettanin received the Victorian Multicultural Commission’s award for Excellence in Multicultural Affairs in December 2005.

tar of Italian Solidarity

"Military Order of Italy Military Order of Italy"

On the 10 Nov 2007, Mario Bettanin was presented the Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella della solidarietà italiana, by the Italian Consulate General in Shepparton, Victoria.

The presentation was made by the Italian Consul for Victoria and Tasmania, Dr Francesco de Conno, at a special ceremony conducted at the Shepparton Italian Social Club in front of about 200 people.

This award was originally instituted in 1947.Initially, it sought to recognise the achievements of Italians and foreigners who played a distinguished role in the reconstruction of Italy following the devastation of World War II.In more recent times, the award has been given to those who have distinguished themselves in affairs related to the Italian community.

References

* [http://www.quirinale.it/onorificenze/onorificenze.asp Presidenza della Repubblica - Onorificenze]

* [http://www.sheppnews.com.au/feature_996054.aspx News Article 14 Nov 2007]