Italy’s Civil Protection Department has recognised the commitment of the Associazione Nazionale Alpini during the Covid emergency. The certificate of merit was presented by the Head of the Department, Fabio Ciciliano, to ANA Vice-President Corrado Vittone. The ceremony took place during Civil Protection Week in Piazza di Siena, in the gardens of Villa Borghese in Rome.
At the same ceremony, the ANA Belluno Section was also honoured. Its president, Umberto Soccal, represented the Section as it received recognition for its work during the severe weather emergency that affected large areas of Veneto at the end of August 2020.
Two awards for two different emergencies
The two certificates relate to different operations. The first recognises ANA’s contribution during the national health emergency. The second acknowledges the work of the Belluno Section during the weather events of August 2020.
Those events affected the provinces of Belluno, Padua, Verona and Vicenza. On 10 September 2020, the Italian Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency. On 1 October, Order no. 704 issued by the Head of the Civil Protection Department set out the urgent measures and the involvement of voluntary Civil Protection organisations.
Keeping the two awards distinct helps explain their meaning: one reflects a nationwide mobilisation during an unprecedented health crisis; the other recognises a territorial response to severe weather that placed communities, infrastructure and public services across Veneto under considerable pressure.
What a Civil Protection certificate of merit means
The Department describes the public certificate of merit as a recognition granted to people, public bodies, institutions or organisations that have taken part with distinction in Civil Protection operations and contributed to the national system through ability, altruism and dedication.
It is therefore more than a symbolic gesture. It recognises organised service, carried out in coordination with public institutions and directed towards people’s safety and assistance.
Its meaning for Belluno and the local groups
For the groups belonging to the Belluno Section, including the Salce Alpini Group, the recognition has an immediate and tangible meaning. ANA Civil Protection relies on a network of volunteers, expertise, vehicles and structures that can be activated when a community needs support.
The Salce Group has often described this spirit of service through the work of its own team and its cooperation with the Section. However, the award to the Belluno Section should not be presented as an award to any one group. It belongs to the collective dimension of organised volunteering and to everyone who contributed to the operations recognised by the institutions.
From remembrance to service
The history of the Alpini is preserved not only through ceremonies and monuments. It also continues through readiness to help, technical training, cooperation with public authorities and the ability to stand beside communities during emergencies.
The awards presented in Rome therefore connect two levels of the same experience: the national ANA during the Covid crisis and the Belluno Section during the severe weather emergency of 2020. Two different chapters, united by the same idea of service.
