EDITORIAL: It's your hromada too (09/03/06)

EDITORIAL

It's your hromada too

Any community is like a living organism. It needs sustenance and nourishment to survive and flourish. And it needs nurturing as well.

Our Ukrainian community, or hromada, is a very special organism, a dynamic entity that develops or atrophies depending on how the members of our hromada interact with each other and how they contribute to the greater good. In fact, the health of our Ukrainian community depends on each and every one of us.

As a new season of community activity is about to begin, we ask our readers: What have you done for our hromada lately? How many of you out there can honestly say that you have done your part to support the wealth of activities and organizations that our hromada has to offer?

At the same time, we want to underline that everyone can play a role - whether as a member of an organization, or working in an ad hoc group, or acting on an individual basis. Let us illustrate with some recent examples that have been on the pages of this newspaper and just happen to be in our "backyard."

Among the groups that have been in the news of late is the Brooklyn Ukrainian Group, which was the topic of a front-page feature in our July 23 issue. BUG's broad mission - "to support each other in artistic endeavors, to raise funds for charitable causes and to promote Ukrainian arts and culture within the Ukrainian diaspora and beyond" - has allowed it to engage in such projects as Christmas caroling to raise funds for a film by a Ukrainian American filmmaker and spring clean-ups at Soyuzivka, the Ukrainian National Association's estate in the Catskill region of New York. Its membership, we should note, is not limited to Brooklyn, since the group has members as far away as England and Ukraine. BUG grew out of a small circle of friends in the tri-state New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania area and, although it is a new group, it has already made a difference.

Then there are ad hoc groups, such as one that dubbed itself Women of Whippany, which was largely responsible for the successful Cabaret Night held in April to benefit the new Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey (which, by the way, is scheduled to hold its gala opening this fall). And there were others who were and are involved in various committees and subcommittees related to the soon-to-be-opened UACCNJ. These energetic people are involved in a variety of local community activities as well, but their joint efforts on a specific project are a wonderful illustration of how goal-oriented groups can have a significant impact.

Of course, individuals too can make a difference. For example, Chris Bilanycz, who works in the UNA Headquarters Building, though not for the Ukrainian National Association, saw an opportunity to help the UNA's Soyuzivka estate and its two newspapers. She is a prime mover behind a cruise benefiting the press funds of Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly and the Soyuzivka Heritage Foundation. (Incidentally, the foundation's creation was announced exactly one year ago.)

We are sure there are many, many more fine examples of work in our local Ukrainian communities throughout North America that are worth emulating. And surely you've noticed them in your backyards. Our hromada benefits from all their contributions.

You know, oftentimes we hear complaints about what others do (or don't do) within our hromada. It's so easy to complain, but not so easy to step up to the plate.

Thank goodness that among us there are organizations, ad hoc groups and individuals who see a need and fulfill it, who genuinely care about their hromada.

So, we ask you, Dear Readers: Isn't it time for you also to make a difference?

Get involved. It's your hromada too!

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