UKELODEON: For The Next Generation (05/08/05)

UKELODEON

For The Next Generation

Hillside parish children learn pysanky and hahilky

HILLSIDE, N.J. - The children at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church celebrated the Easter season by learning and sharing some wonderful Ukrainian traditions - "pysanky" and "hahilky." They also participated in an Easter egg hunt on the parish grounds.

Under the direction of Bohdanna Symczyk, the children - and many adults - learned to write pysanky, or Ukrainian Easter eggs, after liturgy on March 20. Ms. Symczyk gave an overview of this ancient craft and assisted individuals as they created their own pysanky. Many of the participants truly demonstrated their artistic abilities.

The Easter spirit motivated three young parishioners, Nadia Szpyhulsky, Krista Erakovic and Sonya Khedr to make over 20 pysanky, sell them to parishioners and then donate the proceeds to the parish's basement renovation fund.

Two weeks later on Sunday, April 3, the children learned several hahilky (ritual spring dances and songs). The parishioners were quite amazed at how well the children performed thanks to the instruction of Odarka Polansky-Stockert. This year, the children especially enjoyed a hahilka called "Bila Kvochka," which is about a mother duck and her 23 ducklings.

The parishioners and guests truly appreciated the children's contribution to the Easter celebrations.

Readers may visit the parish website at http://www.byzan-tines.net/immaculateconception to view additional photographs of the event.

Chicago school proud of its volleyball team's achievements

by the Angels

CHICAGO - We are the fifth and sixth grade girls who belong to the St. Nicholas Cathedral School's Junior Varsity Team - the Angels.

On Sunday, April 24, we took second place in the Northwest Junior Varsity Volleyball League hosted by St. Bartholomew School of Chicago. Each player and the team received a trophy. We have been contenders in this league for many years, but somehow first place seems to slip past us.

Our coaches, Oleh Sajewycz, Jeff Shanley, Melanie Ruiz and Bohdan Wruskyj, have trained us well. We practice twice a week throughout the school year.

During this season we won both the quarter- and semi-finals, beating the St. Andrew's Bulldogs, the toughest team in the league. However, in the finals - a double elimination tournament - our challengers were the Bulldogs, who came up from the "consolation bracket." We had many volleys, played hard and made some mistakes. In the first game the Bulldogs beat the Angels 2 to 1. In the second game the Bulldogs won 2-0 thus putting us in second place.

We were very disappointed; however, next year will be the year for us. Go St. Nicholas School Angels!

Yonkers SUM sponsors Orange Revolution forum at Yonkers Public Library

YONKERS, N.Y. - The Yonkers branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) sponsored an informational forum and exhibit about the recent Ukrainian presidential election in the Yonkers Room of the Riverfront branch of the Yonkers Public Library on April 9.

After a luncheon buffet featuring Ukrainian foods, the eldest Yonkers SUM youth group, the Skomorokhy, gave a presentation titled "The Road to Democracy - The Role of the Orange Revolution" before more than 100 guests, including the mayor of Yonkers, Philip Amicone, the Yonkers City Council President Richard Martinelli and representatives of the local press.

The Skomorokhy, under the guidance of counselor Orest Kozicky, M.D., had prepared a month-long poster presentation and exhibit of Orange Revolution paraphohnalia at the library to focus on the events of this historical election. After the buffet on April 9, the 16 Skomorokhy members gave a live presentation of the events with a slide projection moderated by project leader Natalka Horbachevsky.

The Skomorokhy presentors included Michael Bybel, Peter Drobenko, Markian Frycz, Melissa Hreyo, Adam Gojdycz, Lydia Jacewicz, Orysia Kozicky, Taras Kulynych, Mykola Miniv, Alexandra Perich, Chrystia Rayko, Christopher Rusyniak, Monica Sawchuk, Damian Shchur, Alexandra Szkafarowsky and Tatiana Terlecky.

Local volunteer election monitors Andrij Burchak, the president of the Yonkers branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association, and Yaroslav Kiciuk, the president of the Westchester branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, followed with a video of their experiences as election monitors and an insider's view of the Orange Revolution activities on Kyiv's Independence Plaza. This was followed by a lively question and answer session.

Mayor Amicone addressed the audience after the program during which he congratulated all SUM members and the entire Yonkers Ukrainian community for their support of the pro-Western democracy movement in Ukraine and proposed that this presentation be reproduced on the local cable public school television program. He recognized the Ukrainian community as being a vibrant representative of Yonkers cultural diversity and congratulated the Skomorokhy for their professional and informative presentation of the history of Ukraine and importance of the recent Ukrainian presidential election results.

Mr. Burchak and Dr. Kozicky acknowledged Mayor Amicone and the Yonkers City Council for the proclamation they issued in November 2004 in support of the Orange Revolution and Viktor Yushchenko's successful candidacy.

In closing, Dr. Kozicky thanked the Skomorokhy for their presentation and preparation of this forum and exhibit. He also thanked his wife, Maryka Kozicky, Andrij Burchak, Lubomyr Shchur, Dr. Maria Kiciuk and Oksana Kulynych for their help with the Skomorokhy project and all the guests for their participation.

The forum closed with a warm several-minute-long acknowledgement of gratitude by the entire audience.

Mishanyna

As the saying goes: "April showers bring May flowers." To solve this month's Mishanyna, find the names of the flowers listed below in the Mishanyna grid.

Then, for a real challenge, try to see how many of these flowers you can find blooming in your neighborhood!

aster, begonia, crocus, daffodil, daisy, forget-me-not, geranium, impatiens, iris, lily, lobelia, marigold, pansy, petunia, salvia, snapdragon, tulip, violet, zinnia

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