Major donation by the Montreal Agnonesi Family Cultural Association

In October 2024, the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation received a $50,000 donation from the Montreal Agnonesi Family Cultural Association, the long-time goal of which has been to bring together families with roots in Agnone, a small town in the Molise region in central-southern Italy, who immigrated to Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s.  

Giovanni Iarusso, whose father, Pasqualino Iarusso, is the founding president of the association, recounts here the inspiring story of this caring, compassionate community and explains why they have made this generous donation in support of the MHI’s work.  

Out of a desire to keep the roots, customs and traditions of their native village alive, Pasqualino Iarusso and a group of friends created the Montreal Agnonesi Family Cultural Association in 1997. “Their mission was to bring Agnonesi families together so they wouldn’t forget who they were and where they came from, and so they could pass on their deeply engrained culture to future generations,” explains Giovanni. “They wanted them to be proud of their origins and preserve their heritage, as a valuable part of the multicultural mosaic of their adopted country.” 

This association found many ways to honour and celebrate Agnone over the past quarter of a century. “Agnone is a small village perched on a hilltop some 800 metres above sea level. It is a beautiful area of the country, where art, history and culture intermingle,” describes Giovanni. “Its biggest claim to fame is the Marinelli pontifical foundry, where generations of the same family have been producing church bells for a thousand years. Agnone is also home to the Ndocciata festival, a torchlight procession on Christmas Eve, where people in traditional dress take to the streets with thousands of handmade wooden torches, accompanied by the sound of Italian bagpipes.”  

Over the years, the members of the association organized various events to maintain this connection with the community that unites them. “Every January, we’d hold ‘Il Carnevale Agnonesi,’ an evening of music, dancing and traditional costumes. And because the group was created as a way to make immigrants feel welcome and help them integrate into their newfound life, we’d also organize community exchanges. Plus, every two or three years, Father Remo Quaranta, a priest from Agnone, would come to Montreal to perform mass and bring us the latest news from the village. And in 2002, a group of folk dancers and singers known as I Dragoni del Molise travelled here from Agnone to perform for us,” he recalls. 

In September 2024, the few remaining members of the Montreal Agnonesi Family Cultural Association met to write the final chapter of their story. “With nobody to take over the leadership of the association, and a committee getting on in years, we didn’t have a choice: it was time to wind things up,” says Giovanni. “The leftover funds in the account needed to be redistributed. We wanted to give back to the community, a value that is such an important part of our culture. We started out thinking we would donate it to one of the Italian associations here in Montreal, but after we talked it over, it became clear that the Montreal Heart Institute was the perfect choice. Everyone around the table had a family connection with the MHI, with parents or siblings who had undergone treatment there at one point or another. Because the MHI had touched all of our lives, everyone agreed that it made sense for us to do something in return. And because we think of ourselves as people with big hearts, the idea had a nice ring to it.” 

Instead of dividing up the money between many different recipients, the members decided to narrow their focus. Apart from an amount set aside for the Douglas Foundation, which supports Quebec’s largest mental health research centre, the majority of the association’s funds were earmarked for the MHI Foundation. “We could’ve given to lots of organizations, but we wanted to make a substantial donation that had the greatest possible impact, something that would help fundamentally change the way things are done and actually save lives. Because Montreal’s Agnonesi community is getting older, we know that the MHI will play a key role in the lives of many of our members, as will the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, given the number of older people these days who are living with dementia,” says Giovanni, whose own father has cardiovascular and cognitive health concerns.  

Although the association itself will cease to exist, its purpose will continue to ring loud and clear at the MHI for many years to come, just like the bells of Agnone. “We are a passionate group of people who enjoy a good celebration, and we love sharing our culture with our adopted country. I’m convinced this legacy of ours will endure. The important thing is to make sure that what we’ve created lives on, only now it’ll be through the MHI. In the words of Father Quaranta, ‘may the thread not break, may the light not go out, may the heart not stop beating.’ That’s the line he always ends with: che il filo non si spezzi, che la luce non si spenga, che il cuore non si fermi. It’s very meaningful when you think about it. It applies to the generations who will come after us and to all the descendants of the families of Agnone. We have a responsibility to maintain and cherish the links we have with the country of our ancestors in our own special way. This is also a very relevant message for everyone who donates to the MHI: it’s vital to ensure our connection stays strong so that we can all continue to turn to this one-of-a-kind, technologically sophisticated hospital that specializes in treating the heart, where love resides and where life can flourish,” says Giovanni.