DOUBLE EXPOSURE: A winter's tale (03/14/04)

DOUBLE EXPOSURE

by Khristina Lew

A winter's tale

It has all the makings of summer camp - a song, a motto, an awards ceremony, a guy playing the guitar - but the motto is "Ski Hee," the guy is a 45-year-old photographer, and the place is Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine.

ULKUS - "Ukrayinskyi Leshchetarskyi Klub in Sugarloaf" (Ukrainian Ski Club in Sugarloaf) - is a weeklong annual ski trip organized by Roman Iwasiwka of Naples, Fla. (If you got married at Soyuzivka in the past 20 years, Roman was probably your photographer.) The trip began as a family outing of the Iwasiwkas and the Kurowyckyjs in the early 1990s. This year the group topped 95, with participants ranging in age from 11 months to 80-plus.

The trip is organized by one man - "by sheer will he pulls it together," says Dr. Taras Odulak, an ULKUS member for three years. There are no organizational squabbles, no internal politics. ULKUS is a trip for Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike, and was created by Roman, "Batko ULKUS," for his son Petroosh. "When I was growing up on Seventh Street [in New York City] we couldn't afford to go skiing. I wanted my son to have that opportunity. I wanted to inspire a generation of kids to love skiing," he said.

This year 36 kids hit the slopes - many on skis for the first time. The smallest ones, like my son, Hryts, spent the day in sleds, being dragged back and forth at the bottom of the mountain.

ULKUS has evolved into an institution, and its spirit, says Motria Shuhan, an ULKUS member for five years, "is generated by Roman Iwasiwka." With the help of his wife, Tita, and sons, Petroosh and Marchyk, Roman recorded the ULKUS song. Andriy, "Vuyko ULKUS," Tytla, burned it onto CDs and mailed to everyone so they had something to listen to on the long ride North. (Sugarloaf Mountain is a stone's throw from the border of Canada - from New York the trip takes eight hours.)

Gogo, "Dido ULKUS," Slupchynskyj, a veteran skier and a fixture of Ukrainian ski camps and ski races, designed ULKUS's T-shirts and buttons. Jerry Kurowyckyj, co-founder of ULKUS, signed each of the awards presented to all the children, including the ones that have yet to get on skis - theirs reads "Best Future Skier." People chip in because they love the trip.

Groups of ULKUS members ski throughout the day, break for lunch at the mountain's pub, and regroup in the afternoon for more skiing, sometimes with the same group, sometimes with a new one. The entire mountain is connected by walkie talkies. Some evenings have planned activities, like a welcoming party and the awards ceremony, and some have impromptu gatherings. This year nine former members of Plast New York's 21st Kurin held a reunion in the mountain's hot tubs.

This was my first ULKUS experience, and I loved it - because it's great skiing, because it brings families together, because it informally gathers Ukrainians of all ages for the love of skiing. Can you tell that I'll be going back next year?

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