A Valentine’s Day wedding at St. Mary’s

     The Southwest Florida Ukrainian American Catholic congregation, led by the Rev. Dr. Severyn Kovalyshin, pastor of North Port’s Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God (St. Mary’s) Ukrainian Catholic Church, has a reason to be much happier following a rather rare event, a “vinchannya” (marriage) of a young couple in the local church.

    Adrian Kekis and Lida Kryzaniwsky were married last Saturday, Valentine’s Day, by the Rev. Dr. Kovalyshin and the Rev. Renaldo Kekis, the groom’s father.

    Adrian is the son of Marij and the Rev. Ronald Kekis, pastor of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Resurrection in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Lida is the daughter of parish members Chrystyna and Dr. George Kryzaniwsky, a U.S. Armed Forces veteran and member of North Port’s Cpl. Roman G. Lazor Post 40 of the Ukrainian American Veterans.

    My wife Katrusia and I congratulate the parents of the bride and groom, and wish “Mnohaya Leeta!” (many, many years) for the newlyweds.
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    Ukrainians in Ukraine and throughout the world commemorate in February Ukrainian Heroines. The tradition began after two patriotic female revolutionaries were murdered by occupiers of Ukraine — Olha Basarab was murdered Feb. 12, 1924, while imprisoned in L’viv, and Olena Teliha was executed by Nazi Gestapo Feb. 21, 1942, at Babyn Yar in Kyiv.

    There are many more heroines, including the most recent ones, members of the “Heavenly Hundred” killed by Yanukovych’s security thugs during the “Revolution of Dignity,” now fighting the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.
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    The Executive Board of the Ukrainian American Club of Southwest Florida, headed by Daria Tomashosky of North Port, held its meeting last week to discuss various issues and to plan the club’s activities for the next several months. In addition to approving the officers’ reports (secretary, treasurer, corresponding secretary and Social Services Committee chair), board members discussed at length the club’s scholarship program following the presentation of professor Victor Lisnyczyj, chair of the Scholarship Committee.

    Prof. Lisnyczyj informed board members that the information about applications for the club’s scholarships was given to North Port and Port Charlotte high schools. Applications are also available on the club’s website at ukrainianamericanclub. com. All seniors from these two high schools are eligible to apply for a $1,000 scholarship. The traditional scholarship awards luncheon will be held at noon March 18 at Heron Creek Golf & Country Club in North Port.

    Among several projects discussed, plans for arranging an exhibit of artwork of members of the local Ukrainian American community in March or in April at the North Port Library elicited the most favorable response. It will be finalized at the next membership meeting.

    The next monthly membership meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Religious and Cultural Center (known as the “Oseredok”). The guest speaker will be Halyna Kymuk, who spent many weeks as an observer and active participant of the Revolution of Dignity, also known as “Euromaidan” in Kyiv (Nov. 23, 2013-Feb. 22, 2014), which resulted in the replacement of the corrupt, Kremlinoriented government of former president Yanukovych with a democratically elected pro-Western “Verkhovna Rada” (parliament) and government headed by President Petro Poroshenko.

    Atanas Kobryn covers the Ukrainian community for the North Port Sun. He can be emailed at atanask@aol.com. 

Our Neighbors  -  The Ukrainians

by Atanas Kobryn