The Andrea Bocelli Foundation has launched a new Project in Muccia, in the Marches, to rebuild the pre-school and the primary school destroyed by the earthquake swarm that hit Central Italy in 2016 and which keeps tormenting that area.
After building the ‘Giacomo Leopardi’ school in Sarnano, in the province of Macerata, inaugurated last May and realized in just 150 days, the Foundation has decided to realize a new building applying the same approach in Muccia. The project whose beneficiaries will be pre-school and first grade students has already been set: the demolition of the remains of the old facility and the new building will take place within a concerted action plan with the Special Commissioner for the Reconstruction. Like for Sarnano, the new school will be donated to the local administration as a “turnkey” project.
As of today in Muccia almost the totality of the households still live in container houses and children are attending their classes in containers; 95% of houses is not fit to live in, however there is a strong willingness and determination to remain in the area that wins over the issues and challenges tied to having to reorganize one’s daily life. This is the reason why ABF has decided to give back to this Community one key reference point: the school for the students and their families which will be a safe and functional facility offering a space both for educational and community activities.
This will be another project with a school-community scope, a place open to students as well as to their families, with special classrooms.
In a place in which the Square – which symbolizes a place of gathering and exchange – is still not accessible and where aggregation areas are no longer available, the school will represent an important reference point. We will work and share – on a daily basis – with the residents and the children every single step of the construction process. We want the school to be an element of rebirth, involvement and sharing, a construction that within a short time frame can be shaped by a community that can start believing again that their homes and their future can still be in their hometown.
Signed by the President Laura Biancalani
La Notte di Andrea Bocelli through the children’s eyes
I had the precious and unique chance to see a great show, with all the most beautiful arias from operas so dear to my heart and interpreted by “my favorite tenor”, through the eyes of the 150 children from the communities of Muccia and Sarnano who were the young protagonists of “La notte di Andrea Bocelli” (The fundraising initiative carried out during the evening was actually dedicated to them.)
About 150 students accompanied by representatives of the two communities were welcomed at their arrival at the Arena by a couple of professional dancers who with an extraordinary pas de deux left everyone literally speechless.
The wait of the many guests and spectators, together with the Mayors and the Special Commissioner for the Reconstruction, Paola De Micheli, was rewarded by seeing in their eyes the amazement for the lights, the colors, the masses that moved and sang at the our side. It was amazing. As well as trying to answer their dozens of questions about the show, about Maestro Bocelli. And their great emotions, together with mine, in seeing their schools and their houses on the big screens rising above us.
Alessio from Muccia and Andrea from Sarnano were the spokespeople of the two communities who on stage respectively spoke about their emotions for the much desired the new school and the beautiful journey of the 150 days together in Sarnano, almost like if then passed one to the other an imaginary baton.
Every day I thank God for having the privilege of doing a job that allows me to touch the lives of people and children. Everything finds a meaning in their eyes and in their emotions.
