Turning the pages back...

July 11, 1953

Forty-nine years ago, on July 11, 1953, The Ukrainian Weekly reported that the Ukrainian National Association formally dedicated Soyuzivka, a year-round mountain resort and home for the aged in Kerhonkson, N.Y. Soyuzivka, eagerly anticipated by the Ukrainian community, gave every Ukrainian the ability to live the resort life while staying immersed in familiar company and Ukrainian culture.

Nearly 2,000 UNA members and friends, who traveled from all over the eastern United States by car and charter bus, attended the two-day festivities on July 4-5, which consisted of formal dinners, concerts and a field mass on Sunday morning. Between events, the guests took full advantage of Soyuzivka's tennis and volleyball courts, and found time to relax by swimming and sunbathing at Soyuzivka's full-length concrete pool.

The Very Rev. Volodimir Lotowycz of Jersey City, N.J., delivered the invocation before the Main House, with the participation of a chorus of UNA employees, led by Eugene Kruk. Dmytro Halychyn, supreme president of the UNA, followed the invocation with a brief but stirring talk. "Our Soyuzivka," he said, "represents a fragment of enslaved Ukraine transplanted here upon the American soil."

In her column in the July 11, 1953, issue of The Ukrainian Weekly, Josephine Gibajlo Gibbons drew parallels between the establishment of the UNA and the recent completion of Soyuzivka. She wrote: "Those pioneers, our fathers and mothers ... put their shoulders to the wheel, and as one pushed the UNA into progress. Yes, indeed, it is a comforting thought to know that the same UNA spirit prevails today."

Source: " 'Soyuzivka' - UNA Estate Dedicated," The Ukrainian Weekly, July 11, 1953; "UNA Spirit at the 'Soyuzivka' " by Josephine Gibajlo Gibbons, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 11, 1953.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 7, 2002, No. 27, Vol. LXX

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