The Lions Club International District 108YA awarded the "Gaetano Tre Re" Award for Excellence in Business and Professions to Luigi Verrino, with the following motivation: "a successful entrepreneur and artist who, with the originality and innovation of his sculptural language, recognized internationally, has been able to express emotions through matter, contributing to the development of contemporary culture and aesthetics. For having brought prestige to our area and to all of Calabria." The ceremony was held in the Council Chamber of Sellia Marina, and the award was presented to Verrino by the President of the Lions Club Cropani - Botricello - Sellia Marina Medio Jonio Luca Cirella, and by the mayor of Botricello Simone Puccio. Service Lions manager Pietro Funaro; present were the mayor of Sellia Marina Walter Placida, the President of the City Council Palmiro Impera, the mayor of Cropani Raffaele Mercurio and the President of the City Council Paolo Colosimo, as well as the Lions leadership. The promoters highlighted that Luigi Verrino, "a successful entrepreneur, founded Calabroparati in Milan in the Sixties, a leader in the sector, later moved to Calabria where it established itself as an excellent company in the construction sector currently operating in Catanzaro. A forward-thinking builder, he built the first large commercial structures in via Lucrezia della Valle, home to important offices and business centers. Furnisher of important residences in Milan and other Italian cities. Painter, sculptor, collector, organizer, curator and artistic director for decades of exhibitions of national standing. For over thirty years he has directed his Galleria Arte Spazio Catanzaro in via Lucrezia della Valle. He has curated the Organization, Setup and Artistic Direction of the most important exhibitions at the Monumental Complex of San Giovanni in Catanzaro, Marca Catanzaro Museum of Arts, in the Ex Stac Exhibition Hall, in the Galleria Arte Spazio, in the San Giovanni Galleries, Centro Arte Spazio Calabroparati, Taverna Civic Museum, Verrino Zagarise Museum of Contemporary Art, Villaggio Mancuso Cultural Club, at the Castle of Santa Severina with an exhibition dedicated to Bruno Ceccobelli, at the castle of Caccuri with a major exhibition of Aleyandro Garcja of Cuban origin, Exhibitions in Cosenza, Reggio Calabria and other Italian cities. He has presented works by Mimmo Rotella, Renato Guttuso, Giorgio De Chirico, Burri, Omar, Zappino, Ceccobelli, Enotrio, Levi, Rito, Lamanna, Marziano, by the greatest Calabrian painters and sculptors as well as of the transavantgarde, also curating many catalogs. Personal friend of Rotella, Pistoletto, Omar, Sgarbi, Bonito Oliva, Sicoli, Coltellaro, and many other world-renowned artists, critics and collectors. Currently, these days, after having placed his bronze sculptures in public places in the presence of the highest cultural and institutional authorities, including the International Sculpture Park Parco Biodiversità Marca Open in Catanzaro, he is creating an artistic fountain in the historic center of Zagarise, his hometown, where he is planning the setup of a new wing of the Museum of Contemporary Art, always under his Artistic Direction, and the implementation of works in his House-Museum. Luigi Verrino is also organizing a major exhibition for the summer. For his long and prestigious career he has received several awards. In Sellia Marina, his sculptures have recently been placed on the seafront and in the heart of the town, in particular a highly evocative bronze work of Giuditta Levato, in the square of the same name." And it is precisely this sculpture of Giuditta Levato, to which architect Giuseppe Talarico has also dedicated a text, that is located a few steps from the council chamber. Thunderous applause for Verrino who, with elegance and extreme conciseness, as is his style, thanked the Lions and the public. Shortly after, a congratulatory phone call from Domenico Gallelli, mayor of Zagarise, who granted Luigi Verrino honorary citizenship for having created an open-air museum of great artistic and cultural interest in his town.