5750(I)_Don Bosco Past Pupils Cooperation - From Chiang Mai to New York
By Mr Peter Kovac, DBPP
General Secretary - Don Bosco World Confederation
Slovakia - USA, 21-12-21 -- The Di BOSCo Coffee Salesian Family Gathering took place last Saturday, 11 December at Mary Help of Christians Academy in North Haledon, New Jersey (USA) from 2:30 - 4:00 PM. It was a great opportunity to meet Mr Peter Kovac, Don Bosco Past Pupil from Slovakia and Co-Founder of Di BOSCo Coffee, and get him to tell the Di BOSCo story. The event was free and conducted in the spirit of Don Bosco’s Oratory and everyone, especially families with children and students were welcome! All felt at home in this Salesian atmosphere of faith, fun, friends, and delicious snacks: coffee, chocolate, and cookies galore! The was already a Christmas music, photo taking with Santa Claus, and a living Nativity. Fr Tom Dunne, SDB with Sr Denis Signicker, FMA and other animators of the Salesian Family in SUE province were present at the event (photo).
DI BOSCo is a company made up of Don Bosco Past Pupils network - coffee growers, processors, retailers, distributors and coffee shop owners. Started with an inspiration during the Don Bosco Past Pupils World Congress by Thai Past Pupils (Chiang Mai) who brought their coffee to Rome. The coming of Mr Peter to New York is an attempt to open the very first warehouse and coffee shop in the USA (Paterson - New Jersey). For the participants it was rather pleasant and surprising invitation to get involved in something bigger than the 'market'.
Mr Peter Kovac shares the enthusiastic atmosphere of this event:
"It was fantastic, although very tiring. In the few days of my stay in New York we also had some meetings with USA Don Bosco Past Pupils Association members. The whole event was also broadcast LIVE online with our 'DiBOSCo Coffee Project' presentation with participants from New York, New Jersey, Florida, California, Chicago and even from Canada (NB: SUE province comprises Eastern USA and Canada).
Of course, another suprising fact in this event is that it was held with many secondary schools students from SDB and FMA schools, with young and not-so-young Salesians SDB, with Salesian Cooperators, Don Bosco Past Pupils from Haiti and from Dominican Republic living in NY as well with lay mission partners (teachers) from Salesian schools. There were not crowds, but according to Fr. Tom it was really one of the SF meetings with the largest variety of participants and he was wondering how it is that a 'Coffee Project' brings so many different people together!
It was really a very fruitful event that brought a large number of different Don Bosco Past Pupils together and this 'trigger or catalyst' may spark another inspiration."
NB: The World-wide network of DiBOSCo Coffee Project includes at the moment: communication or business (producers, customers, partners) in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, USA, Thailand, Philippines, East Timor, Brazil, Kenya, Congo, Slovakia, Hungary, United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Poland and Czech Republic. Slowly we are trying to enlarge our network.
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