Ukrainians in Houston mark milestone: 25th anniversary of Ukrainian American Cultural Club (10/29/00)

Ukrainians in Houston mark milestone: 25th anniversary of Ukrainian American Cultural Club

by Roma Hadzewycz

HOUSTON - This city of approximately 1.8 million - the fourth largest city in the United States - is home to a significant Ukrainian American community. That may come as somewhat of a revelation to certain segments of the Ukrainian American community, which tends to be focused on the East Coast and often thinks there's no Ukrainian community life west of, well, the Midwest.

But the reality is that there is a thriving Ukrainian community in the Lone Star State's largest city. According to community leaders, nearly 10,000 reside in the metropolitan area. In fact the premier local organization of Ukrainians, the Ukrainian American Cultural Club of Houston recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of its founding.

The UACCH invited a reporter from The Ukrainian Weekly to attend the festivities on September 30, a banquet and dance at the Crowne Plaza Hotel - as well as to spend a weekend getting to know Ukrainian Texans.

The visit revealed the unique character of this community, as well as its strengths - most notably its diversity and the willingness of disparate elements of a community to work together toward a common goal. And, though Houston's is a small Ukrainian community, it is immensely proud of the scale of its accomplishments when compared to the number of its members.

The Ukrainian American community is proud also of its state and its city. As locals like to remind visitors, everything in Texas - the second largest state in the United States - is big. Indeed, everything in Houston seems very big.

Known as the world center of oil and natural gas technology, it is the second largest port city in the United States, boasting ties to all parts of the world, and is home to 24 universities and colleges, including the University of Houston, whose 30,000 students are enrolled in 14 colleges that offer a wide range of programs on the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.

Houston is known also for its huge (and still growing) Texas Medical Center, which encompasses 42 member-institutions, including two medical schools, four nursing schools and 13 hospitals. More heart surgeries are performed here than anyplace else in the world. It is a veritable city within the city, employing nearly 55,000 (and providing more than 43,000 parking spaces for employees patients and visitors) and covering an area of more than 695 acres within Houston. Last year the TMC had 4.8 million patient visits.

And, to the south, beyond the city's downtown of glistening new skyscrapers, is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center.

According to the Almanac of American Politics, Texas - one of four states to once have been an independent republic - has created more jobs in the 1990s than any other state.

The Ukrainian community also has grown in recent years. Demographer Oleh Wolowyna reported in The Ukrainian Weekly in 1991, on the basis of U.S. Census information, that the population of Ukrainians grew from 8,636 in 1980 to 13,094 in 1990 - an increase of 51.6 percent in that 10-year span that reflected the outmigration of Ukrainians from what are considered traditional places of settlement, like the Eastern Seaboard and the Midwest. As of 1990 Texas had the 12th largest Ukrainian population among all U.S. states.

Roots of the community

Most of the members of the Ukrainian community in Texas arrived here after World War II, although some came at the turn of the century.

Indeed, the Ukrainian National Association's Jubilee Book of 1936, which was published in commemoration of the organization's 40th anniversary (1934), and contained profiles of Ukrainian communities and UNA Branches in the United States (plus a single entry from Canada, about Toronto), contained this brief listing for Houston: "There are approximately 20 Ukrainian families. Some subscribe to Svoboda."

There were only two other listings for Texas.

For Bremond the citation noted: "There are about 150 families. Many Ukrainian attend the Polish church and read Polish papers. They know very little about Ukrainian affairs. They arrived here around 1907 from Chortkiv, Ternopil and Buchach counties."

As for Fort Worth, the listing provided this: "There are about 60 families, but only one is interested in Ukrainian life and sends donations to the native land."

Once new immigrants arrived in Houston after World War II, their thoughts turned to organizing a community. A Ukrainian American Club was organized and the community turned to Archbishop-Metropolitan Constantine Bohachevsky to ask for permission to establish a church. The metropolitan sent a missionary: the Rev. Stephen Sulyk, today archbishop-metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States. The first liturgy was celebrated at St. Thomas University, and the first chapel was in a garage.

The first concrete result of the community's organization was a church, St. Pius X Ukrainian Catholic Church, built in 1957 at the time the Rev. Dr. Dmytro Blazejowsky was pastor. The church's name was chosen by Metropolitan Bohachevsky to honor a pope who did much to aid Ukraine, but was changed in 1988 to Protection of the Mother of God (Pokrova). Today the church complex is situated on four acres of land and encompasses the church, a hall, a rectory and the Learning Center, where the local School of Ukrainian Studies holds classes.

In 1968, on April 19 to be exact, Houston-based UNA Branch 28 was established. Its founders were Victor Balaban and Dmytro Popadynec. One of its original members was Michael Danylyk, who served as branch secretary. The current secretary is Olga Dub, who is trying to expand the branch beyond its membership of 40 by enrolling families, primarily children who may benefit in the future from the UNA's student scholarship program.

Also notable on the community scene is one of Houston's newest organizations, Branch 118 of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, founded in December 1980. Its very active leader is Martha Noukas, 43, who was born and reared in Houston.

But the group that encompasses the most diverse membership is the Ukrainian American Cultural Club of Houston, which has about 55 members - 36 of them full members and the rest associate members. Activists range from architects and engineers to businessmen and retirees, and everything in between. The younger members tend to be professionals, while the older members are retired from various fields of endeavor, noted UACCH President Wsewolod Hirka.

Probably 95 percent of the members come from somewhere other than Texas, he added. There is a small group of newcomers from Ukraine, most of whom attend liturgy at Pokrova, but have not yet taken the next step and joined the UACCH. In a sense, then, Mr. Hirka commented, all the Ukrainians of Houston are "immigrants" to the city.

The UACCH meets monthly (on the first Sunday) at the Pokrova parish, but is in the process of buying three parcels of land near the church on which it hopes to build a community center that would serve as a home for all Ukrainians of all generations and all faiths.

Mr. Hirka underlined that the strength of the UACCH lies in the fact that the members, though they may not be unified by the usual markers such as age, origin or faith, are all united in purpose: to promote the Ukrainian cultural heritage and, in the process, to socialize with fellow Ukrainians.

That is why, he added, the UACCH "has accomplished a tremendous amount for a club this size."

The anniversary

The focus of the silver jubilee celebration of the Ukrainian American Cultural Club of Houston was a thank-you to the club's founding members. Many of the persons cited were present to receive the UACCH Distinguished Service Awards to a great round of applause from the audience of 160 gathered at the banquet.

The honorees were: Bill and Daria Byrd, Michael and Oksana Danylyk, Alex and Helen Filenko, Helen and Steven Kichtan, Sonia Tymniak, Justyna Uschak, Martha Noukas and Roy Kobak.

Present among the audience in addition to Houston's Ukrainians were former Houstonians who now reside in other parts of the United States, such as Cary Sheremet and Walter and Lisa Guzylak, representatives of the Ukrainian community in Dallas/Fort Worth, and Ukrainians who live relatively nearby without the benefit of a Ukrainian community, such as Irene Bohachevsky of Leesville, La.

The evening began with the presentation of colors by Scouts and Plast members carrying the flags of the United States, Texas and Ukraine. The American and Ukrainian national anthems were sung by a choir of community members of all ages.

A toast delivered by UACCH President Hirka noted that the purpose of the evening was "not only to celebrate 25 years of the club, but 25 years of people's devoted activity."

Master of ceremonies Eugene Kuchta, a former president of the UACCH and chairman of the anniversary committee, then took over, introducing honored guests, among them the Rev. John Mihalko of St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church and the Rev. Paul Chovanec, president of the Slavic Heritage Alliance of Greater Houston, as well as representatives of the Polish, Croatian, Czech and Slovenian communities.

John Romankow of the Ukrainian American Society of Texas delivered greetings from Dallas/Fort Worth. He and his wife Rose, as well as Erik and Sophia Nakonechnyj, received UACCH service awards in recognition of their contributions to Ukrainian community life in Texas. Also honored, but not present, were fellow Dallas/Fort Worth activists Constantine and Oksana Klufas.

An overview of the UACCH's activity over the decades was delivered with humor, by Helen Filenko, club treasurer, who spoke of the club's beginnings in the 1970s under the first president, Anne Polewchak; Mr. Kuchta, who covered the 1980s, sharing anecdotes about club activity; and Nadia Buchai, club secretary, who provided a factual round-up of events significantly changed by Ukraine's proclamation of independence.

Special acknowledgment was reserved for Mr. Kuchta, who, as Mr. Hirka underlined, "took the bull by the horns and organized this event - his work has been outstanding." Also recognized were UACCH Vice-President Olia Holowka Palmer for her work on the anniversary program book, and Olia Hirka, whose art work graced the special publication, as well as all the executives of the UACCH.

Music that evening was provided by the Volodymyr Kotsioruba Ensemble.

On the occasion of its anniversary the UACCH received written greetings from Texas Gov. George W. Bush (see sidebar), Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown (who proclaimed a Ukrainian American Cultural Club of Houston Day), the Embassy of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Association, as well as the Slavic Heritage Alliance of Greater Houston, the Czech Heritage Society of Texas, the Lone Star Croatian Club and Polish community organizations active under the aegis of the Polish Home of Houston. Greetings were delivered at the banquet by the editor-in-chief of The Ukrainian Weekly.

A benediction was delivered by the Rev. Andrij Dwulit, pastor of the Pokrova Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Speaking with The Weekly after the official program was over, UACCH Vice-President Palmer said: "What I like best about this community is that if you consider yourself Ukrainian it doesn't matter if you speak Ukrainian or not, or if you're a member of Plast or SUM or ODUM, or nothing." In short, everyone is welcome.

UACCH commitment and activity

The UACCH annually participates in the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Slavic Heritage Days Festival in Houston, and in 1998 the Ukrainians of Houston hosted the affair, which features divine liturgy at the host community's church, ethnic entertainment, foods and a diverse program that highlights all facets of the ethnic groups' culture.

The annual event, whose co-founders were Bishop John Morkovsky of the Houston-Galveston Diocese of the Catholic Church and the Rev. Dr. Blazejowsky, pastor of St. Pius X Ukrainian Catholic Church, brings together the Polish, Czech, Slovene, Croatian and Ukrainian communities.

In the past the UACCH has also participated in such major events as the Houston International Festival, one of the largest in the state, and the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio. In 1988, during worldwide celebrations of the Millennium of Christianity in Rus'-Ukraine, the UACCH presented an exhibit at the Houston Public Library and presented a choral performance in Dallas. It has also participated in the annual Christmas Tree Exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. During the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations the UACCH choir sang at a concert in front of Houston City Hall.

In addition, the club has engaged in much charitable activity, becoming involved in such diverse projects as funding a book-binding machine for a library in Bukovyna, western Ukraine; supporting Ukraine's athletes participating in the Atlanta Olympic Games; donating to the Ukrainian Studies Fund at Harvard University; and sending medical journals to Ukrainian medical institutions. They have also stepped in to help sailors from Ukraine who have found themselves stranded, without funds or a means of subsistence, in their port city.

Cultural activities include the establishment of choirs and dance groups, such as the Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Houston. The club has also invited notable speakers to address the community on a variety of topics, ranging from human rights in Ukraine and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians to current events in Ukraine, such as the Chornobyl nuclear accident and Ukraine's participation in space exploration. It is noteworthy also that the UACCH hosted the first president of newly independent Ukraine, President Leonid Kravchuk.

Social events also are important, as the group host picnics, barbecues and holiday gatherings.

Though geographically far removed from major Ukrainian population centers, Ukrainian, in Texas are succeeding in maintaining their Ukrainian heritage, intent on sharing it with future generations and the public at large.

A major boost in the visibility of Ukrainians in the Lone Star State will come on November 4, when the George Bush Presidential Library will celebrate Ukraine Day. Hopes are that former president himself will be there and that the day will serve as further proof that the Ukrainian community in Texas is thriving.

The program, sponsored by the UACCH and UNWLA Branch 118, will include a panel discussion with the participation of Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Kostyantyn Gryshchenko; Ukraine's Honorary Consul in Houston Gregory Buchai; Bush Foundation Director Roman Popadiuk (the first U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, named in 1992); Dr. Alexander Litvinchuk, research associate professor at the University of Houston; and Ukrainian American astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper. Mr. Kuchta will serve as moderator. Also on the schedule are a program of Ukrainian music, song and dance, as well as an exhibit of photographs of Ukraine by Wilton Tifft. A reception will follow.

The day - the first ethnic day to be held at the presidential library - will provide an opportunity for this dynamic group of Ukrainians in Texas, as Mr. Buchai notes, "to share our cultural heritage with our American friends and the world."

Next week: Meet the Ukrainian Americans of Houston.

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