Commander Rondiak is asking all members to attend this meeting because the final decisions and arrangements will have to be made for the post’s participation in the community Veterans Day observance at 11 a.m.
Wednesday at Veterans Park (near the North Port Library), and the traditional Veterans Day Luncheon at noon Nov. 12 at Heron Creek Golf & Country Club.
There are very few tickets left for this buffet luncheon at $25 per person, and the final accounting will have to be made at this meeting.
Some Post 40 members will travel to Washington, D.C., to take part in the activities associated with the unveiling and formal dedication of the National Holodomor Memorial, located at North Capitol Street and Northwest Massachusetts Avenue.
The dedication ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Saturday. Other activities include a Holodomor Exhibit running through Nov. 14 at Union Station, commemorative concert at 2 p.m. Sunday at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University, and church services.
•••
The local Branch 56 of “Soyuz Ukrayinok” (Union of Ukrainian Ladies), headed by Ann-Marie Susla of Englewood, held a very successful picnic last Thursday at Maxine Barritt Park in Venice, and a monthly membership meeting Tuesday at the Oseredok.
The meeting, after a brief business segment with the necessary reports of officers, including Yara Litosch, picnic committee chair, was dedicated to the commemoration of the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine, perpetrated by Stalin and his personal emissaries, as a result of which close to 10 million people died of starvation.
Past President Oksana Lew was the program coordinator, and professor Vira Bodnaruk delivered a brief but comprehensive and well-documented address about the subject.
•••
The just released Netflix documentary film “Winter on Fire — Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” screened at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Ukrainian American Club of Southwest Florida, headed by Daria Tomashosky of North Port, at the Oseredok and brought tears to the eyes of many viewers who were impressed with the heroism of Ukrainian youth, including students, and horrified by the brutality, including killings of peaceful demonstrators, by security forces of former Ukrainian President Yanukovych.
The next monthly membership meeting of the club will take place at 6 p.m. Nov. 18, at the Oseredok, instead of the traditional last Wednesday of the month, because of Thanksgiving.
•••
Nov. 1 is a special day for Ukrainians.
On Nov. 1, 1918, the independence of the once mighty Empire of Halych was restored as the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR), thanks to the bloodless coup of Ukrainian officers of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Unfortunately, a bloody war followed very soon after because the Poles, who were numerous in the capital city of L’viv, wanted the city and surrounding area to be part of Poland.
The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and an acknowledged moral authority of Ukrainians regardless of their religious convictions, Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytskyj, died Nov. 1, 1944, and a military hero and political leader, Col. Andrii Melnyk died Nov. 1, 1964.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment