They ring the doorbell. Four o'clock on the dot on Tuesday—not a minute late. Rosa and Jennifer arrive together, holding hands as they cross Forcella, a rough neighborhood in complicated Naples. They come for the Cherison Choir. At La Scintilla, working with the association Gli Amici di Aldo, the young people play and sing together Tuesday afternoons under the skilled direction of teacher Fausta. On Friday, May 29, the choir performed at the Church of Santa Chiara, taking part in a fundraiser against organized crime organized by the local scout movement.
After 25 years, La Scintilla is also this: a moment of celebration and solidarity where the young people are the stars, in daily work that balances professional skill with generosity of spirit.
Thursday morning: In the "red" workshop, Agostino, a retired architect, creates objects from covered cardboard with Lucia. Lucia doesn't speak, but she calls everyone to silence and calm. She takes her work seriously, Lucia does.
In the "blue" workshop, Silvano—just back from London where his son works at a large hotel—works with Daniela on terra-cotta key chains for the Fede e Luce pilgrimage to Assisi. Before she works, Daniela wants to put on her gloves: an operation that can take half an hour. Time moves slowly at La Scintilla.
Salvatore and Giampaolo sit at the computer designing a card for the "sparkling" wedding favors. The groom is a musician, and the young people found a funny image that captures the couple.
Andrea and Tony just got back from the bookshop where they work Tuesday and Thursday mornings. La Scintilla's office is in a museum, and the young people collaborate with the shop, offering handcrafted items made in the workshops.
In the kitchen, Domenico, Paolo, and Paola are making lunch. Domenico chops tomatoes while telling stories about the pasta dishes he makes with his mother at home.
After lunch, everyone rests.
In the afternoon, working with the association Terra Libera, which focuses on autism, teachers from the nearby art high school will lead workshops. Mario and Martina will come to work on pieces for an exhibition opening at the end of July.
At six, the evening shift workers arrive. Showers, dinner, and then something special: everyone goes to the small soccer tournament organized every year to support the association. Teams from other organizations, restaurants, businesses, and city agencies in Naples take part.
At eleven, everyone returns to Casa Scintilla together, tired and smiling.
Twenty-five years have passed since a group of parents and friends of Fede e Luce decided to establish an association to make a dream real: to create spaces where people with psycho-motor disabilities could live freely and express all the beauty they carry within them, making the sense of community they had experienced at Fede e Luce camps something lived and breathed every day.
Annamaria, Aldo's mother, believed in that dream her whole life. Aldo and Luca are no longer with us, but the dream remains. After many changes of address, shifts in staff, ups and downs of every kind, La Scintilla—thanks to the generosity of many benefactors and above all to the warmth of the Pio Monte della Misericordia—now occupies a beautiful, spacious facility. It welcomes eight young people almost full-time, and others—a number that grows every day—who participate in workshops, projects, and initiatives of every kind.
The love, energy, passion, and work of the staff, board members, volunteers, and friends of La Scintilla made it possible to reach this point.
Much still remains to be done to address the challenge of what comes after. But knowing how far the community has come together gives La Scintilla the strength to continue.
Claudia Novello, 2015