1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Meanwhile... back at The Weekly (12/25/94)

1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Meanwhile... back at The Weekly

Here at The Ukrainian Weekly, 1994 seemed to be a year to travel as just about everyone went somewhere - on assignment that is.

As we began the year, Roman Woronowycz, staff-writer-slash-editor (he and the other staff writer/editor chose the title themselves) was already in Kyyiv at the UNA-funded Kyyiv Press Bureau, having arrived there on December 1 of the previous year. He stayed on until July 1. But he did not stay put. Mr. Woronowycz, who as some might recall had said way back when that he doesn't want to just sit at his desk, didn't do that in Ukraine either. His pre-election coverage took him to Lviv, Ternopil, Odessa, Rivne, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovske, Symferopil and Ivano-Frankivske. Later in the year, in October, Mr. Woronowycz went on a brief hop to Ukraine as Finnair aimed to popularize Helsinki as a major gateway city offering direct flights to Kyyiv.

Assistant Editor Khristina Lew flew to Vienna and then on to Odessa on March 28 to provide coverage of Austrian Airlines inauguration of its Vienna-Odessa route. While on that trip she interviewed Ukraine's ambassador to Austria, Yuriy Kostenko. That, of course, fit in just fine with her series on Ukraine's diplomatic representations in the United States - its Embassy in Washington and Consulates General in New York and Chicago. (Our coverage of Ukraine's diplomats was filled out with reports by Chris Guly from Canada, Tony Leliw who covered Great Britain, and Oksana Zakydalsky, who did a piece on Ukraine's diplomatic presence in Egypt when she visited that country.)

On June 15, Associate Editor Marta Kolomayets arrived in the Ukrainian capital to begin her fourth tour of duty at our press bureau. Before that, however, she took some time off to get married to Danylo Yanevsky, a historian and journalist from Kyyiv. (To continue our travel theme, we must note that they traveled to Hawaii - not on assignment, but for their honeymoon.) Before that she traveled to Pittsburgh to cover the 33rd Regular Convention of the Ukrainian National Association. She also served on the convention's Resolutions Committee.

Speaking of the UNA Convention, Editor-in-Chief Roma Hadzewycz also traveled to Pittsburgh. While there she delivered her first quadrennial report as a supreme advisor, and her fourth report as The Ukrainian Weekly's chief, and was overwhelmingly re-elected to the Ukrainian National Association's General Assembly as an advisor (she was the top vote-getter). Later in the year, Ms. Hadzewycz took a quick nine-day trip to Ukraine in September-October to visit, for the first time, the Kyyiv Press Bureau and to touch base with contacts in the capital and Lviv.

Soon after that, in mid-October, it was off to Washington for the annual Leadership Conference, where the editor-in-chief accepted The Washington Group's 1994 Journalism Award presented to The Ukrainian Weekly "for outstanding reporting, keeping the Ukrainian and American communities informed about issues and developments in Ukraine." Just weeks later, a delegation representing Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine mysteriously appeared in our office bearing a plaque citing Ms. Hadzewycz for "outstanding editorship" on the occasion of The Weekly's 60th anniversary year (which officially began October 6, 1993).

Yet another travel event was the May arrival in the United States of our trusted Kyyiv secretary, Vika Hubska. She arrived for the Kolomayets/Yanevsky wedding and did some sightseeing in the U.S. along with two other Kyyivans who have connections to The Weekly: journalists Borys Klymenko and Volodymyr Skachko, whose bylines are occasionally seen on our pages.

In July-August, Andrij Wynnyckyj, the aforementioned "other" staff writer/editor, traveled to Ukraine as part of the American Jewish Committee's "Project Ukraine." His trip turned out to be more than we bargained for as our hapless colleague was the victim of a robbery at the customs control point at Lviv airport where he had arrived with the group from Warsaw. And the project turned out to be quite that, as Mr. Wynnyckyj's coverage of the fact-finding trip was a project in and of itself. (Later in the year, Mr. Wynnyckyj was badly in need of a break, so he journeyed to Paris for vacation.)

Our staff was augmented by Ika Koznarska Casanova, our part-time editorial assistant; Yarema Bachynsky, our part-time, part-time summer intern (who shows up during the school year whenever he needs bucks). And, we should mention our Kyyiv intern, Adriana Leshko, who helped out during August in our press bureau there and earned a couple of bylines to boot.

On the production side (or in "Lomkaland," as we call it), there are our invaluable typesetter Awilda Arzola (whose first name, despite her 14 years with The Ukrainian Weekly, some of our fellow employees at the UNA headquarters still cannot get straight) and Serge "King Sid" Polishchuk, our layout artist.

During the year we the editors and our production team put out several special issues. There was our issue dedicated to the UNA centennial (we are particularly proud of that one), the issue containing the proposed amendments to the UNA By-Laws (for the perusal and review of all UNA members on the eve of the convention), and, of course, at year's end, our scholarship issue and, well, this Herculean effort that you hold in your hands.

* * *

And so, as 1994 draws to a close, we continue to cover developments in Ukraine (as we like to continually remind our readers, that nation of 52 million - or 52.6 million to be more precise), news within the Ukrainian American and Uk ]rainian Canadian communities, Ukrainian diaspora happenings, Ukrainian anything...

We thank all our correspondents, colleagues and faithful readers for their cooperation and their input. As always, we wish all of you happy holidays. May 1995 bring the fulfillment of all your dreams.

And, oh yes, keep on reading and keep in touch.

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