Good times roll at new OLG bocce court

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GOWER’S GROUP: Team 1 of OLG’s new bocce league is also known as Gower’s Group and includes, form left: Betsy Riley, George Riley, Biagio Micheletti and Father Peter J. Gower.

MIGHTY MEMORIAL: Among those people helping to dedicate the new Our Lady of Grace Bocce Court that’s named in memory of Nicholas Silvestro, are from left: Madison Silvestro, Rev. Peter J. Gower, Melissa DeFusco, Ron DeFusco and Ron Silvestro.

TERRIFIC TEAM: Members of Team 5 include Joe Patterson, David Marsella, Joe Andreozzi and John who played the first official match at OLG’s new bocce court Monday.

CLASSIC CHORE: Rocco Uriati is the official measurer, as the title goes pertaining to bocce, for OLG’s new league that plays at the court named in memory of the late Nicholas Silvestro.

During the past two years, there was talk about building a bocce court alongside Our Lady of Grace Church in Johnston.

The conversations grew louder as time moved on and Rev. Peter J. Gower, the popular pastor at the Roman Catholic parish, felt a bocce court would be a great addition and enable the Holy Name Society to form teams and eventually start a league.

“After all,” Father Gower said Monday night, “An Italian parish should have a bocce court.”

Enter proud parishioners like Joe Grasso, Tom Ucci, Sr. and Joseph Micheletti who took on the unenviable role of fund-raising and as Father Gower related the other night their successes quickly began piling up.

Before long Grasso’s Gang – as someone called the fun-loving group Monday night – had seemingly generated enough funding to actually build such a facility. The trouble was, the question of “who is going to build it” kept popping up.

Then during a recent conversation with Melissa “Missy” DeFusco about various events and happenings at OLG, Father Gower became overwhelmed and excited when he heard her say: “My husband will build it.”

Her husband is Ron DeFusco, who owns and operates Union Fence Company in Pawtucket, and built more than just an ordinary bocce court at Our Lady of Grace.

What Ron DeFusco did, Father Gower said during Monday night’s bocce court dedication ceremony, was “build a marvelous memorial that will enable all the people of the parish to use this beautiful facility. This really adds to who we are at Our Lady of Grace.”

Ron DeFusco, in fact, built a bocce court extraordinaire; a regulation 70-by-10-foot, fenced-in facility replete with wooden benches, a grill and smooth surface that’s made of stone dust, gravel and clay all surrounded and secured by thick wooden beams that on Monday night was dedicated in memory of his nephew Nicholas Silvestro, a Johnston resident who passed away at age 22 back on Feb. 19 of this year.

“Nicholas is now in God’s hands,” Father Gower said while offering comfort to family members, especially to his father Ron Silvestro. “This bocce court will serve as a remembrance, a memorial that will bring people together to have fun and in his name.”

During Monday night’s dedication, Father Gower – along with Melissa and Ron DeFusco as well as OLG’s newly-formed bocce league looking on -- unveiled a banner that reads: “Our Lady of Grace Bocce Court -- In Memory of Nicholas Silvestro.”

The banner also offers “Special Thanks” to Joe Grasso, Tom Ucci Sr., Joseph Micheletti, Ron & Melisa DeFusco and County View Landscaping.

Nicholas Silvestro is also survived by his mother, Gina Silvestro, and two sisters, Madison and Miranda Silvestro.

Monday night also marked the opening of the first-ever OLG Bocce League that has six teams with six players each and will play weekly matches until the final round on Oct. 22.