UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY LEADERS CELEBRATED AND RECOGNIZED IN ALBERTA
May 2, 2013-OTTAWA- Ukrainian Canadian Congress National President Paul Grod presented Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals to 6 deserving community leaders in public ceremonies held inCalgaryandEdmonton,Albertaon April 19 and April 20, 2013, respectively.
"It was a tremendous honour to present these awards on behalf of His Excellency the Governor General ofCanada, the Right Honourable David Johnston, to such worthy leaders from our community," stated Ukrainian Canadian Congress National President Paul Grod. "It is only fitting that these important leaders of our community are recognized with this most prestigious award. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Mykhailo, Halyna, Daria, Petro, Andriy and Marian for their tremendous efforts in building our community in this province and indeed across the country."
The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals were presented to Mykhailo (Mike) Hantzsch and Halyna Lyp'ska Wilson inCalgary; and to Petro Dackiw, Daria Luciw, Marian Gauk and Andriy Hladyshevsky inEdmonton.
On Friday evening, at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church Hall in Calgary, an awards ceremony was held to present the of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals to Mr. Mykhailo (Mike) Hantzsch and Mrs. Halyna Lyp'ska Wilson (see attached bios). The awards ceremony was emceed by Mr. Bohdan Romaniuk and attended by approximately 120 members of the Calgary community, including Ukrainian Catholic Bishop David (Motiuk) and UCC Alberta Provincial Council President Barbara Hlus.
The keynote speaker for the evening was Mr. Paul Grod who presented the medals and addressed the crowd on current priorities of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress including issues such as: historical recognition, the importance of including Ukrainian Canadian issues in theCanadianMuseumfor Human Rights and working together to continue to further develop the community.
In addition, Mr. Hantzsch and Ms. Lyp'ska were recognized for their achievements by representatives of the Ukrainian Youth Association (PLAST) and Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM) respectively.
On Saturday April 20, atSt. John'sUkrainian Cultural Centre inEdmonton, an awards banquet was held to honour four recipients of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal: Petro Dackiw, Daria Luciw, Marian Gauk and Andriy Hladyshevsky. The awards ceremony was hosted by Ukrainian Canadian Congress Alberta Provincial Council President Barbara Hlus. The event was attended by approximately 150 people including His Grace Bishop Ilarion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, the Honourable Gene Zwosdesky, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and Genia Leskiw, MLA.
Those assembled were treated to a performance by the Dunai Dance Ensemble and the Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton. UCC National President Paul Grod awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals to the four recipients and gave a keynote address. Mr. Grod spoke about the commitment and community service of the recipients and about the importance of building a strong Ukrainian community that looks after its members from cradle to grave and provides services at every stage of life along the way to its members. He also spoke to the need to strengthen our community based organizations and the need to continue to support them by volunteering and through financial support. He concluded by speaking of the need to continue to build a strong and united community, and emphasized the need for the community to work in common purpose on issues of importance like Ukrainian language education and ensuring that the Ukrainian community's priorities are included in theCanadianMuseumfor Human Rights.
In addition to the awards ceremonies inCalgaryandEdmonton, a UCC delegation consisting of National President Paul Grod, UCC-APC President Barbara Hlus, Executive Director Taras Zalusky and UCC-APC coordinator Slavka Shulakevych met with a number of groups and individuals. InCalgary, a meeting was held with Bishop David of the Ukrainian Catholic Church to discuss cooperation between the community and the church and how the two groups could better work together and support one another. In addition, a meeting was held with community leaders to discuss the rejuvenation of the UCC Calgary branch.
InEdmonton, the group met with Dr. Volodymyr Krawchenko, Director of the Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies (CIUS). Also in attendance were Jars Balan, Bohdan Klid and Mykola Soroka of the institute. The group was briefed on the priorities of CIUS and several topics were discussed including better sharing of information, recent changes at CIUS and the importance of cooperation between the Institute and the community.
"I was pleased to meet with Dr. Krawchenko and to have a good discussion with him on the plans and priorities of the Institute," stated UCC National President Paul Grod.
The delegation then met with Bishop Ilarion at the Western Eparchy office of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and had a good discussion on how the church and community can work together to help one another.
"We cannot have a strong Ukrainian Canadian community without strong churches, and we cannot have strong churches without a strong Ukrainian community. Both Bishop David and Bishop Ilarion were very supportive of the work that we are doing in developing our community and support our cultural, educative and social initiatives," stated Grod.
Paul Grod addressed a joint meeting of the UCC Alberta Provincial Council and UCC Edmonton Branch and spoke about the current initiatives to strengthen our branches and member organizations. Grod mentioned a number of initiatives targeted at strengthening Ukrainian schools and educational initiatives undertaken by the Congress, as well as the recent community development workshop which was designed to strengthen the capacity of UCC branches, provincial councils and member organizations. The meeting with the boards of UCC-APC and UCC Edmonton also dealt with three issues of local concern:
• The ability for Ukrainians to immigrate toAlbertaand lack of availability of Ukrainian workers and immigrants for the province;
• Challenges currently faced byAlberta's bilingual school program as well as to the Ukrainian Language Education Centre (ULEC) at theUniversityofAlberta; and
• Community concerns over the changes taking place at theCanadianMuseumof Civilization and the potential impact to the St. Onuphrius Ukrainian Catholic Church which is currently a consecrated Catholic church and is the largest "artefact" at the Museum. The museum is currently changing its legislative mandate and will become theCanadianMuseumof History.
On Sunday, April 21, the delegation travelled toRed Deerfor a community meeting which was held after the divine liturgy at the St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic church. The meeting was attended by approximately 75 people from the Red Deer Ukrainian community. Organized by Ms. Oksana McIntyre, and the UCC-APC, and attended by Reverend Julian Bilyj, the assembled group was addressed by Barbara Hlus and Paul Grod.
Paul focussed his remarks on the work of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and how it works at the international, national, provincial and branch level to represent the interests of the Ukrainian Canadian community.
"Our community is stronger when we are able to work together with our grass roots at the local level to share information and to develop community projects and address community concerns together," stated Barbara Hlus, President of UCC-APC. "We heard the concerns of a number of members of the local community inRed Deeron issues related to immigration and settlement, youth programming and their interest in the possible establishment of a UCC branch. We are arranging a follow up meeting in the short term to address some of the community's concerns."
Photos of the awards presentations and UCC Roadshow inAlbertacan be found in our photo gallery at Alberta Photos on www.ucc.ca.
