Cartiere del Garda: Heritage, Innovation, and Community Engagement

Cartiere del Garda: just the name evokes torrents of pure white paper, a continuous need to grow, to expand, written into the often tumultuous and stormy history of the relationship between the giant and the city.

Then, during the festivities, a print-out is delivered inside a simple white envelope—something that would be reductive to call a corporate newsletter—revealing how Cartiere del Garda is indeed paper, but not only that.

The Family and Blue Magazine

Cartiera is also a family that has grown over the years through work and the hundreds of men who keep it alive: it is also art, altruism, generosity, entertainment, sport. The magazine is called Blue Magazine.

At the beginning, CEO Paolo Mattei summarizes the strategy of Lecta, the group that includes Riva, along with the French Condat and the Spanish Torraspapel: 1,180,000 tons of wood-free coated paper are produced annually, with a solid leadership in Europe, already making inroads into the U.S. market, with the only concern being ever-increasing quality (for Riva, it means investing 12 billion in the third).

During the August and New Year’s breaks in 2001, the same strategy continues, while a celebration takes place for 27 employees marking 25 years in the company, with words of thanks from the top executive and recognition that the company’s current undeniable success is attributable to the commitment and professionalism of those who work there.

Stories of Emergency and Commitment

Ezio Parisi recounts how, sometimes, while at work, he is called to help someone trapped in a wall: like last summer, when rescuing a Fassana girl on the Brento, hanging from her parachute caught in a rock, with four hundred meters of emptiness below her.

Gualtiero Parisi, Loris Boninsegna, and Fabrizio Di Stasio wait until January 31 to cross the lake again from Malcesine to Campione in the darkness of winter night; they climb knowing there is nothing extraordinary, just the need to do it.

Roberto Piazza, when asked about his profession, describes himself as a shipping department worker, but he also produces highly valuable engravings and sculptures that could earn him a permanent spot among artists, if he only did it for that purpose instead of passion.

Sports and Poetry

And then there’s basketball, a focal point of Garda sports.

Finally, a brief rundown on Blue Magazine, a thread of Christmas poetry: Paolo Bridarolli recalls the humble and happy times of the past, with “polenta and milk” that “popà,” which the children ate together straight from the pot.