Our Mission
The mission of the Amity Club is to promote charitable, intellectual, and civic pursuits among its members and to create, uphold and perpetuate in the business and professional community the highest ethical standards together with true friendship among its members. Additionally, the Amity Club strives to encourage members to provide unselfish service to their fellow citizens, to emphasize humanitarian virtues in their daily activities among all people and to participate in community enterprises formulated for the common welfare and good of the community.
To these ends, the Amity Club directs its philanthropic energies in the form of scholarship support to academically qualified young people from the greater New Haven area and to organizations and activities designed for the community and individual betterment.
President’s Welcome Letter
Welcome to the Amity Club of New Haven,
The Amity Club was founded in New Haven in 1936 by a group of prominent Italian-American businessmen. Their goal was to develop a social and civic club for professional Italian Americans in the New Haven area. They created the name Amity based on the syllables “Am” for America, the country they loved, and “Ity” for Italy, the country and culture of their ancestors. “Amity” is also a word which means friendship, peace and harmony, which is derived from the Latin word “amicus” or friend.
The mission of the Amity Club is to foster and promote charitable, intellectual and civic pursuits among its members both within the club and Connecticut; to encourage an appreciation of Italian history and the Italian-American legacy to America; to support charitable giving through the Amity Charitable Trust Fund. We promote tradition values of patriotism and religion by our words, actions and example.
Creating a warm atmosphere of friendship among our members is an important goal. To that end, the Club generally meets twice per month for dinner in New Haven to enjoy each other’s company and discuss club business and activities. Meetings typically include a high participation rate of over fifty percent. Often, guest speakers are invited to enlighten members in various fields. Guest speakers have included Congressman Larry DiNardis, Amity Club member; Richard Diana, orthopedic surgeon and former member of the Miami Dolphins; mayors, authors, educators and sports figures.
Over fifty years ago, the Club established the Amity Charitable Trust Fund (ACT) to facilitate the mission to support charitable pursuits in the New Haven area. The ACT is a 501c3 and is composed of a general fund as well as individual funds which are managed by the ACT. The objective of the ACT is to improve the quality of life for citizens of the New Haven area and Connecticut who need financial help. To that end, the ACT manages financial assets for long-term appreciation. Annual income of the funds is distributed to worthy charities selected annually by the Club. In addition, annual college scholarships are awarded based on merit to local high school seniors. Since its inception, the ACT has donated well over $1 million to students and charities in Connecticut.
Currently, the Amity Cub has approximately 175 members who are primarily professional Italian-American men in the New Haven area. Members are asked to join on an invitation basis. Members participate in dinners, tours, wine tastings, golf outings and other social activities to provide opportunities to enjoy each other’s friendship and raise charity donations for the ACT.
Tom Santoro
Amity Club President 2021-2022