Active memory
“I subscribe to your decision to set up this foundation whose objective is actively to preserve the memory of past events, so that each and every one of us can assume our responsibilities.”
“Unfortunately, the inevitable sometimes occurs. But these are not things that belong to the inevitable. These are tragedies which ought to have been avoided: the conditions which led to the tragedy should never have arisen. Time and time again we are confronted by these dramatic events. I hope that an initiative such as yours will help to keep alive the sense of duty which should distinguish anyone carrying out the tasks entrusted to them.”
“I am honoured to pledge the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic to the Stava 1985 Foundation, since I am not the only one to support you: every citizen of Italy is and ought to be supporting you in your endeavours aimed at preserving the memory of this tragic event. I share with you the memory of those innocent victims. Therefore full solidarity: not only voiced, but real.”
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
President of the Italian Republic
during the audience on September 22nd 1999
at the Quirinale Palace in Rome
The objectives pursued by the Foundation were described to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the ItalianRepublic, during the audience on September 22nd 1999 at the QuirinalePalace in Rome.
As well as voicing his heartfelt solidarity to this initiative, Italian President Ciampi also pledged his high patronage to the Stava 1985 Foundation during his term of office.
To make sure that the death of 268 innocent people on 19th July 1985 in the Stava Valley was not in vain, the relatives of the Victims decided to set up a foundation to prevent any similar predictable and avoidable events from happening ever again.
The founding members of the Foundation comprise the Association of the Relatives of the Victims of the Stava Valley disaster, today renamed Association “19 luglio Val di Stava”, the Fiemme Valley Community, the Municipalities of Tesero, Longarone and Cavalese. The joining of the Municipalities of Longarone and Cavalese as founding members of the Stava 1985 Foundation has sealed the link uniting the Stava valley survivors with the people of Vaiont and the community of Cavalese, which was struck by two cableway disasters.