Havertown Resident Honored for Her Volunteer Service
Lorraine D'Emilio honored as first runner-up Fraternalist of the Year by the National Fraternal Congress of America.

10/23/07

OAK BROOK, IL – The National Fraternal Congress of America (NFCA) recognized Lorraine D'Emilio—a member of Supreme Council of the Royal Arcanum, Integrity Council, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—for her outstanding volunteer efforts.  D’Emilio was recently named first runner-up for the NFCA’s 2007 Fraternalist of the Year award, recognizing the nation’s top volunteers among the 10 million members affiliated with NFCA’s member-societies.  She was recognized at the “Celebration of Fraternalism” luncheon held at the 121st NFCA Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“Lorraine D’Emilio is a shining example of what it means to be a fraternalist,” said NFCA Chair of the Board Katharine E. Rounthwaite.  “We are pleased to honor Lorraine for selflessly giving her time to serve her community in so many ways.”

D’Emilio is active within Integrity Council in Philadelphia.  She has actively chaired and organized the following programs:

SAT Program—D’Emilio organizes the annual free one-day seminar for all junior members of local councils.  The program is designed to help students with instructions and strategies for answering questions, vocabulary expansion, practice questions, pacing the SAT verbal and math portions, and essay training.  Student instruction is provided by Achievement House Educational Services—a major provider of PSAT/SAT preparation with group and one-on-one individually customized training for each that is licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education.

ABATE Program—D’Emilio organized a program for members to help the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia sort toys from the Alliance for Bikers Aimed Toward Education (ABATE) Program.  Thousands of motorcyclists arrive in early November each year with gifts for children being treated at the Children’s Hospital.  The gifts are sorted by age, type and description by D’Emilio and a group of Royal Arcanum members, who spend the day organizing the thousands of gifts donated.

Swing Dance Program—D’Emilio organized a Swing Dance to benefit the Maternity Care Coalition, where admission to the dance was a box of diapers, a box of baby wipes and a $10.00 donation per couple.  All of the items collected were given to the MOMobile—a program of the Maternity Care Coalition whose community health workers, known as Advocates, reach out to pregnant women, new parents, infants and their families in the community.  They help low-income families get the vital services, support and information they need to make healthy choices.

Until recently, the Integrity Council was an “all male” council, where women were not permitted at the meetings unless invited.  Since the change, D’Emilio has been a driving force in revitalizing the council’s meetings and community activities.  D’Emilio also is the president and owner of Incredible Italian Ices, Inc., a frozen dessert company that regularly provides water, ice and free frozen desserts to several local Catholic parishes and the local high school for summer events.  Her company joins the local library in rewarding children in the summer reading program, by giving children a coupon for a free item at D’Emilio’s store when they are done reading a book. 

About the Supreme Council of the Royal Arcanum
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the Royal Arcanum is one of the oldest fraternal benefit societies in the United States and the Dominion of Canada, operating under the fraternal system, which offers many social and fraternal benefits to its members.  For more information, visit www.royalarcanum.com.

About the NFCA
The 121-year-old NFCA unites 75 not-for-profit fraternal benefit societies operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.  The association represents 10 million fraternalists in 37,000 local chapters, making it one of America’s largest member-volunteer networks.  Fraternal benefit societies provide their members with leadership, social, educational, spiritual, patriotic, scholarship, financial and volunteer-service opportunities.  Combined, the NFCA’s member-societies maintain more than $329 billion of life insurance-in-force and, in 2006 alone, contributed almost $410 million to charitable and fraternal programs, and volunteered nearly 95 million hours for community-service projects.  These statistics demonstrate the commitment that fraternals make to those in need and exemplify the true meaning of the NFCA signature phrase:  Joining Hands to Touch Lives.