They collect. Joe Bella and Rich Padova collect with purpose and zeal. Bella’s movie star photos and posters number in the hundreds. Padova’s presidential election swag, memorabilia and torch parade lanterns could fill a room. But their items on display in the St. Alfio Society exhibit at the Lawrence Heritage State Park’s visitor center go deeper than celebrity and politics.
Their pins, tickets, postcards, programs, framed newspaper front pages on display during October — Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month — speak to their persons, beliefs and families’ Immigrant City roots.
