Capo Cafe in Vaughan fundraising for coronavirus care packages for Italy, local residents

Romina Pisani and her fiance, Piero Silvaroli, temporarily closed café doors, and opened their hearts to help combat COVID-19

Yorkregion.com
April 8, 2020
Aileen Zangouei

The fight against COVID-19 is happening on the front lines which looks like doctors, nurses and hospital staff working longer shifts.

There’s also a fight happening on the side lines against COVID-19, and that is where Vaughan Capo Cafe owners, Romina Pisani, 35, and her fiance, Piero Silvaroli, 36, come in.

Pisani lived in Italy for some time before moving to Woodbridge in 2015.

In 2017, she opened Capo Cafe to share the authentic Calabrian culture she loves with York Region.

The cafe, which feels like Italy when you walk in, is now temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, Pisani and her fiance feel for Italy as their home country has been hit hard by the virus.

As of April 6, the COVID-19 Google stats show that Italy has had 132,547 confirmed cases with 16,523 cases resulting in death.

Calabria, the southeast of Italy, has seen 817 cases with 58 of them resulting in death.

Pisani has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for care packages to send to the smaller towns in Calabria which she said consists of many elderly citizens. Donations will also go towards care packages for the community of Vaughan.

“We want to make sure they are ready for what may come,” Pisani’s statement on the GoFundMe reads.

The Capo Cafe owners’ goal is to send five care packages which consist of 500 disposable masks and 500 pairs of gloves, each, to five locations in Calabria, Italy. Each care package will cost around $600, Pisani said.

Each town that will receive a care package in Calabria, Italy, has a connection to Pisani’s personal life in some way.

Pisani’s grandmother lived to 97 in the town of Gagliato before passing away in 2019.

The town of Serra San Bruno is where her grandfather is from and is also where her last name originates.

Two old age homes in Chiaravalle Centrale will be getting care packages; one of the homes is where her grandmother passed away, and the other has already seen many residents pass away from the virus.

The final location is San Gregorio D’Ippona in Vibo Valentia, where Pisani said she has two close friends who are front-line workers at the hospital. According to Pisani’s friends, the hospital in this town is short on supplies, and Pisani wants to help by sending a care package to there as well.

As of April 6, Pisani’s GoFundMe has raised nearly $3,000, one of the most generous donations being from the T&A Real Estate Group based in Kleinburg.

Pisani has partnered with her friends at Guangdong Xinxing International Trade Co., a manufacturer in China, to arrange for the distribution of the supplies for the care packages to Italy.

Thanks to the outpour of support from across York Region, Pisani has already been able to place two orders for Italy, where they will be delivered to her close contacts who will oversee distribution of the supplies.

To support residents and front-line workers here in Vaughan, Pisani has partnered with Infinity Glove and Safety in Scarborough for the purchase of 1,000 disposable masks and 2,000 gloves.

On April 11, Pisani and Silvaroli will distribute 2 care packages containing 250 disposable masks and 500 gloves each to Fire Station #7-3/EMS Station #31 and Fire Station #7-9, all of which are in Vaughan.

The couple will also be out in their city distributing care packages to families that day. Each care package will include 5 disposable masks and 10 gloves.

As for Capo Cafe, the doors remain temporarily closed with no takeout as Pisani stays committed to flattening the curve.

“We know we will be taking a huge financial hit but it’s the decision we made in the interest of our community because we want to slow down the spread,” Pisani said.