![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/53755436126_b24e73d70e_c.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cOur mother was the leader in our family, and she was an amazing inspiration to all of us with the example she set,\u201d Bruna said. \u201cShe was such a forceful individual who encouraged all of us to go to school. It was \u2018Learna lots. Learna everything.\u2019<\/p>\n
Gina agreed that Amabile was a champion for education. And both of Gina and Bruna\u2019s husbands (Dan Alary and Bob Burnett) have been very supportive of these endowments for UFV.\u00a0 Dan and Bob attended electrical classes at UFV, which added to their farming skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe used to have this Italian saying that whatever you put in your head was never a weight on your shoulders,\u201d Gina added.<\/p>\n
Their ongoing support offers a tangible example of UFV\u2019s mission of engaging learners, transforming lives, and building community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to acknowledge the impact your family has made in the community and at UFV,\u201d said Susan Mide Kiss, Vice-President, Community Engagement. \u201cYour passion and commitment to higher education, community leadership, and community building is truly inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gina became a pioneer in the poultry industry. Along with husband Dan Alary, she founded Western Hatchery in the 1970s. At the time it was the largest of its kind in Western Canada, and still operates today. Gina and Dan were founding members of the B.C. Egg Marketing Board in 1972 and spent years working to ensure stability and a dependable livelihood for the province\u2019s egg producers.<\/p>\n
Encouraged by Amabile to pursue post-secondary schooling, Bruna earned an Administrative Professional Certificate from Vancouver Community College and became the first female Chief Credit Officer in the financial services industry in Canada, a groundbreaking achievement at a time when gender equality was scarce.<\/p>\n
Bruna said Amabile was her role model for equality, refusing to accept any less on the family farm she helped to run with her husband Primo, brother-in-law Leone, and sister-in-law Luisa.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir first night, she told them, in Italian of course, \u2018We all need to be on top of the table at the same time, or under the table at the same time,\u2019\u201d Bruna said. \u201cIn other words, equality. When you\u2019re farming it\u2019s whoever\u2019s closest who needs to get the job done, and it was my mother who knew how to milk the cows and grow the grain for the fields and vegetables for the garden, which she preserved for the winter months.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite having a Grade three education, she was wise beyond her years.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the FAI endowment created last year by Bruna, she also established the Amabile Giacomazzi Endowment Scholarship in Professional Cook Training in her mother\u2019s name back in 2003 and has made other gifts to the university. She was also a UFV Foundation board member from 2002-07, and she had a smile of pride on her face as she listened to Julseth-White, Johal and Young talk about the research they\u2019ve done this year.<\/p>\n The family also heard from FAI Director Dr. Lenore Newman, and FAI Associate Director Dr. Stefania Pizzirani. Pizzirani explained it\u2019s uncommon for undergraduate students to have the research opportunities they get at UFV, which are often reserved for master\u2019s students at other universities. Newman talked about the exciting work being done in the FAI, which focuses on issues, challenges, and sustainability solutions related to food and farm systems.<\/p>\n While Gina\u2019s husband, Dan, couldn\u2019t attend due to health reasons, her four children \u2013 Dana, Daren, Darrell, and Donna \u2013 were also at the gathering. Donna is a longtime UFV employee (since 2007) who is currently Enrolment Planning Manager for Institutional Research and Integrated Planning. She graduated from UFV with a MA Crim in 2012, and has supported the university with several gifts, along with serving as a UFV Alumni Association board member from 2004-2008, and with meaningful gifts to both of the endowments at UFV.<\/p>\n Daren shared thanks to the students, FAI, and Newman for their hard work. He said that farmers are by nature scientists, and he was excited to hear about the innovative research taking place at UFV.<\/p>\n \u201cFarmers are always searching for ways to improve their production, by tilling the soil a little different to capture just a little more rain, to adding just the right amount of ground flax to their chicken ration to improve the flock\u2019s rate of lay,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are always tinkering, experimenting, looking for better ways to survive, improve their lot in life, and take better care of their family.<\/p>\n In closing, Daren expressed, \u201cWith great honour on behalf of the Alary side of the Giacomazzi\/Alary family, thank you. And on behalf of the farmers, please keep up the great work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From UFV Now: A local family with a long history of generous support for UFV has come forward once again with financial contributions for student researchers in the Food and Agriculture Institute (FAI). Bruna Giacomazzi, her husband Bob Burnett, joined by her sister Gina Alary, and several other family members recently visited UFV\u2019s Abbotsford campus … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":12391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[444,169,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-feature","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12394,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12389\/revisions\/12394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>