A week at Radio Deejay

Every year since 2009, Linus and Nicola Savino have hosted children, volunteers, and families, supporting the communication and fundraising campaign for the solidarity SMS. A unique opportunity to introduce listeners to the many stories of the Campus.

“I'm obsessed with bracelets. This one was given to me at the end of the Dynamo session, and I've never taken it off since.” Alyssa, 16, from Livorno, is not chatting with a friend over a cappuccino, but with Linus and Nicola Savino, right in front of a Radio Deejay microphone. In the background, the notes of one of the current hits. Their voices chase each other off-air. But after a few minutes, they're back on-air. “We are here, embraced in a large radio hug, which is that of Dynamo Camp,” Linus begins.“Alyssa, how does your voice sound in the headphones?” Nicola asks. “Are you getting excited? If you move closer to the microphone, it's even more thrilling…” Radio Deejay has been a partner of Dynamo Camp since 2009. Each year, during the Deejay chiama Italia program, it hosts children, volunteers, and families for a week, supporting the communication and fundraising campaign for the solidarity SMS (from March 7 to 28, 2021, on Radio Deejay, Radio Capital, and major national TV broadcasters). An extraordinary opportunity to share Dynamo's many stories with listeners. Like Alyssa's, who literally confided in the microphones of Radio Deejay: “Thanks to the Camp, I was reborn. For the first time, no one made me feel embarrassed for being visually impaired, as happens to me in everyday life. I learned to value myself, I understood that there's no point in hiding my problem. I even thought that if one day I hypothetically could see, I would end up missing this condition, because it is now a part of me.”

Stefano and Lara Mattivi, parents of four children, faced some adventures to get to the Radio Deejay studios, but as usual, they made it, always with a smile, even though their car broke down and they arrived in the presence of Linus and Savino practically by tow truck. For Dynamo, this and more: “There, for the first time, we didn't feel like parents of disabled children but simply parents,” they explained live. “For the first time, Mattia and Giacomo did the same things everyone else did. And for the first time, Luca and Federica played carefree, not as a brother and sister of disabled children.”

For the Di Gregorio family from Casalincontrada (Chieti), the trip to Milan to participate in the program turned into an unforgettable holiday. “It was a dream!” explains mum Silvia, who, a year later, still can't hide her emotion. “Imagine getting a phone call telling you that you and your family will be guests of honour on Radio Deejay's flagship show, interviewed by Linus and Nicola Savino. You feel happy and important. My husband and I grew up listening to this station and we didn't sleep a wink. For the first time, then, my children, Riccardo and Anastasia, took a plane. Dynamo organised the trip in every detail, facilitating travel in every way, especially for Anastasia, who uses a wheelchair. During the flight, while Riccardo read the Odyssey the whole time, because he is passionate about mythology, his sister didn't take her nose off the window for a moment. I, on the other hand, was strapped to my seat with my eyes closed because I'm afraid of flying. ‘Mum, please, don't embarrass me, act like an adult,’ Riccardo quickly warned me. When we arrived in Milan, they took us to visit the city. We had never been there: now every time we see the Duomo on TV, we remember that time we admired it from the taxi thanks to Dynamo.”

At Radio Deejay, Riccardo immediately got into character and approached the interview in a familiar atmosphere. Needless to say, when Linus and Nicola learned of his passion for the Odyssey, they couldn't resist making a few funny jokes. The boy told the microphones that his life poses many “whys,” but at the Campus these questions disappear, making way for “I can, despite everything…” or “I can, full stop!” “Dynamo was one of those important moments in my children's lives,” mum Silvia still confesses. “It was what was missing in their lives. We have always tried to teach them to keep going no matter what, that value is always in the journey, that you fall to get back up, and that difficulties exist to improve yourself. But it's one thing to say it, another to do it. We live in an area poor in facilities and inclusive mentality, so, if I hadn't had Dynamo for them, those would have remained just beautiful words. At the Camp, my daughter even managed to complete the climbing, she who is afraid and gets dizzy as soon as she is moved from her wheelchair.” The whole town of Casalincontrada listened to Riccardo on Radio Deejay. And when he returned to school, he was welcomed like a hero, certainly much more than Odysseus returning to Ithaca. “Ricca’,” a classmate told him, “I would have peed my pants in front of the microphone, and you managed to stand up to Linus and Nicola Savino with your jokes… You're great!”

Source: DYBC MAGAZINE