My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

Representative Kelly Parella, now deceased. I formed a
committee and we organized several activities, including a dinnerdance
at St. Elizabeth's Church Auditorium - the parish that our
family belongs to - with the help of Father Louis Diogo. Our
campaign raised an amount that was the most recorded until 1993,
which made us all very happy and proud.
Rehabilitation of the Kaiser Mill Complex
The Kaiser Aluminum plant closed down in the seventies. In
1977, the owners donated the entire complex to Roger Williams
College, known today as Roger Williams University. In 1979, the
college was going to sell the mill to a developer who was looking
to change the zoning and build Section 8 Housing in one of the
buildings.
The neighborhood around the Kaiser Mill joined together to
oppose the construction for two reasons: a) There was no
guarantee that it would only be occupied by elderly people, so they
were afraid that it would attract undesirable people as well as
drugs, prostitution, criminals, etc. b) There was no comprehensive
plan for the rest of the complex which would continue to degrade
the center of our beautiful town.
I was home one evening when I received a call from my good
friend Dr. Manuel Luciano da Silva. He said he had just finished
a meeting with the neighbors of the Kaiser Mill, and that they had
elected me, unanimously, to be the president of the Kaiser
Neighbors’ Committee. I told him that I didn’t know what the
committee was all about. A couple of days later, I attended a
meeting at the Dom Luiz Filipe Society with all the neighbors
present. I was given a briefing and I accepted the challenge to
become their president and spokesperson.
At the time, I was the official travel agent for the local college.
My wife was totally against my intervention with one of our best
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