GLAD TO BE HERE—Tony Modugno, right, and family friend Tynan Daniels, both of Santa Barbara, practice for a three-legged race Sept. 19 at Rancho Simi Park during a family reunion. More than 300 members of the Fusano and Modugno families showed up to celebrate 100 years since an ancestor came to America from ItalyThe event included lunch, games, contests and family portraits. With the help of 15 relatives, Simi Valley resident Cherice Spicer brought more than 300 members of the Fusano-Modugno family to Rancho Simi Park for a reunion last Saturday.

“We started sending out invitations in January,” said Spicer, whose maiden name is Fusano. “There were a lot of people to contact and get back RSVPs.”

The families were celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the arrival in America of their patriarch, Cristofaro Fusano, from his home country of Italy.

HOOPIN’ IT UP—McKenna Robledo, 5, from Canyon Country participates in a hula hoop contest during the Fusano-Modugno family reunion. McKenna celebrated at Rancho Simi Park with more than 300 extended family members. “My dad came over in 1909 and brought my mother over in 1911,” said Ralph Fusano, 86. “He went to work for the Old Sylmar Olive Growers Association.”

During his lifetime, Cristofaro Fusano became one of the principal olive growers in the Sylmar area and one of the main distributors of olive oil in the country. Ralph maintains the family tradition, growing olives on a 60-acre farm in the small town of Lindsay in the San Joaquin Valley.

Cristofaro and his wife, Rosa Modugno, were the parents of seven children. Ralph is one of three surviving children who attended Saturday’s festivities along with his sister Angelina, 91, and brother John, 84, both Sylmar residents.

“I know quite a few of the family here but not all of the children,” John Fusano said. “Life is good,” he added, overlooking the crowd of relatives enjoying the day.

Each family brought a food dish to share, and Italian sausage was cooked on the barbecue. Adults who hadn’t seen each other in years greeted each other and talked about old times. Grandchildren and greatgrandchildren ran around playing together and bouncing on a jumper.

Most family members live in the Sylmar-San Fernando Valley area and other West Coast sites, but relatives traveled from Utah, Arizona and Oklahoma to attend the reunion.

The family tree has hundreds of names on it, representing the Fusanos and the Modugnos and their extended families.

John Fusano’s line has a multitude of branches. He and his wife, Anita, have eight children, 19 grandchildren and 24 greatgrandchildren.

Cherice Spicer, a granddaughter, is a substitute elementary school teacher in the Simi Valley Unified School District. With her at the reunion were her husband, Mike, and their three daughters: Alyssa, 12, Kailey, 9, and Mikenna, 5.

“My wife’s family is much bigger than my family,” said Mike Spicer, an environmental consultant. “I know some of them that we see frequently, and it’s pretty nice meeting everyone.”

Nine years ago a FusanoModugno family reunion in the same park on Erringer Road and Royal Avenue brought together 200 family members. This year’s gathering was decidedly larger.

“I guess we’ve upped the great-grandchildren since then,” Cherice Spicer said laughing.