St. Wenceslas celebration & club news

Dear Club Members,

Please mark your calendars for our St. Wenceslas celebration to be held on Saturday, October 8, at the Mike Onka Hall, 11520 Putnam St., Sugar Creek, MO 64054. The celebration will start at 1:30 PM and will be highlighted by a Czech and Slovak goulash dinner with side items provided by club members as listed below. Our club will also hold a goulash cooking class beginning at 10:00 AM in the Mike Onka kitchen. Please let Terry Smitka know at 816-217-9487 or tsmitka@rwbaird.com if you would like to participate. It will be a great opportunity to learn how to prepare this traditional Czechoslovakian dish and then get to taste the result.

Our program that day will include a “Know Your World” presentation about Slovakia by Major Alex Schober, who is a Slovak officer attending the military college at Fort Leavenworth. Major Schober delivered this program previously to his fellow officers and guests at Fort Leavenworth and everyone who attended thought it was very informative. In addition, there will be traditional Slavic music performed by the famous Sugar Creek Tamburitzans. This event is open to all members and guests and there is a suggested donation of $5/person to attend. Children are free and the $5 includes the goulash dinner and a beverage of your choice. We also ask that you bring a side item as listed below. The club will provide the goulash, eating utensils, and drinks.

A-M – salad/vegetable

N-Z – dessert/appetizer

The Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International is hosting its 13th biennial Genealogical and Cultural Conference in St. Louis, Missouri this October 26-29. The Conference’s major sponsors are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and CSA Fraternal Life Association of Oak Brook, IL. This event is for all people interested in Czech and Slovak history, culture and family history research. For more information and to register, go to http://www.cgsi.org/news/2010/11/01/cgsi-conference-planned-oct-2011. Please consider attending this conference and supporting the CGSI organization. Their mission is educating people on the lives and history of those with ancestry from the Czech and Slovak lands.

If you have always wanted to learn how to bake Czech and Slovak kolache, you can sign up for a class on Saturday, November 5. It will be held at St. Cyril’s Catholic Church, 11231 Chicago St., Sugar Creek, MO 64054. The class starts at 9 AM and the cost is $15/person. Hana Buric and Jirina LaVine from our club will be the instructors. The class is limited to 15 people so please sign up soon by contacting Mike Kalny at 913-962-2145 or mikekalny@aol.com. That same afternoon, St. Cyril’s will be holding a 5 PM polka mass followed by a dance and raffle at 6:30 PM at the Mike Onka Hall. The dance is a fundraiser for St. Cyril’s parish and the Sugar Creek Tamburitzans will be performing that evening as well. Please contact Mark Pinter at markpinter@gmail.com for information and tickets.

Our traditional St. Mikulas celebration will be held on Sunday, December 4, at the Sylvester Powell Community Center, 6200 Martway, Mission, KS 66202. The time will be from 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM and will include a visit by St. Mikulas. More detailed information will be available as we get closer to the date.

Terry R. Smitka

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CGSI’s 13th Genealogical/Cultural Conference

This event is for all people interested in Czech and Slovak history, culture and family history research. The Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International is hosting its 13th biennial Genealogical and Cultural Conference in St. Louis, Missouri this October 26-29. The Conference’s major sponsors are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and CSA Fraternal Life Association of Oak Brook, IL.

There are 4 great International Speakers coming in Miroslav Koudelka, professional genealogist and tour guide from Olomouc; Jan Dus, professional genealogist and tour guide from Policka; Michal Razus, professional genealogist and tour guide from Presov, Slovak Republic and Rebekka Geitner, historian from the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum in Hamburg, Germany.

Attached is a copy of the Registration booklet, minus the front and back covers which are very large color files (so they are omitted to save space). Included in the booklet are the on-site activities at the Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel, including Thursday, Friday and Saturday presentations. There are 3 tours planned, two of them are of the old Czech and Slovak settlement areas in St. Louis.

St. Louis is the birthplace of America’s Fraternal Benefit Societies, with the C.S.P.S. founded in 1854. St. John Nepomuk, the oldest Czech Catholic parish in America was also founded in 1854, with its frame church dedicated in 1855. Monsignor Josef Hessoun (1830-1906) of St. John’s was a leader among Czech Catholics and in 1873 began Hlas (“Voice”) Publishing Company. American SOKOL fitness and cultural organization’s first unit was started in St. Louis in 1865. Most Holy Trinity Slovak Catholic (founded in 1890s, but now extinct) and St. Lucas Evangelical Lutheran church (organized 1905) were center-pieces of the St. Louis Slovak community near the turn of the 20th century. Today many Czech activities take place at the American-Czech Educational Center at 4690 Lansdowne Avenue and Slovak activities at St. Lucas’ church at 7100 Morganford Road.

Please consider attending this conference (many of these conferences are held on either coast, therefore more expensive). Also, consider supporting the CGSI organization whose mission is educating people on the lives and history of those with ancestry from the Czech and Slovak lands.

Thank you,
Sharon Valasek

For more information and to register, go to http://www.cgsi.org/news/2010/11/01/cgsi-conference-planned-oct-2011.

Registration booklet here.

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