For 53 years now, and that’s not a small number, on the third Saturday of September, this year it falls on the 21st, the mountain people meet in Pinzolo, men and women who come to Rendena from all over the world, to attend the award ceremony of the Targa d’Argento-International Alpine Solidarity Award.
The prestigious award, conceived by Cav. Angiolino Binelli, wants to honor those who risk their own lives to help others and those who dedicate themselves to defending the values of the mountain environment.
In this edition, to reiterate that among the values, that of solidarity is innate with the environment, with those who are born there and decide to continue living there, the choice of the Committee fell on Fausto De Stefani, a dreamer, an exceptional mountaineer who transformed his great passion for the mountains and for its creatures into a reason for living, into an extraordinary commitment to human solidarity, concrete and far-sighted, and respect for an increasingly fragile environment, involving the new generations.
On this occasion, right in Pinzolo, in the town where the first Sat Alpine Rescue station was established in 1952, a memento will be given to the President of the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps who is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its foundation.
Those attending the ceremony, which will be introduced as always by the Coro Presanellla, the Authorities, the entire community will then gather in a fraternal and emotional embrace around the families of Lorenzo Paroni and Giulio Aberto Pacchione – members of the Guardia di Finanza mountain rescue team, who died during a training outing in the Friulian mountains – who will be awarded two gold medals in memory.
As per tradition, the appointment with the Award will begin on Friday morning at the PalaDolomiti where the awardee will meet the students of the Val Rendena comprehensive institute and will discuss with them, illustrating his activity, answering their questions, transforming those questions into a formative moment of notable educational effectiveness.
The intense day will conclude with the opening, again in the PalaDolomiti rooms, of the exhibition dedicated to the great Alpine guide Clemente Maffei Guerét on the centenary of his birth, and the memory of the mountaineer with a round table, in which his daughter Eva Lavinia, Dr. Marco Collini and Fausto De Stefani will participate.
