2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Meanwhile, at The Weekly... (01/12/03)

2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Meanwhile, at The Weekly...

Whoa! Is it 2003 already? Here at The Weekly, let us tell you, 2002 just flew by. Could be the workload and the number of stories we published during the year ... there was just no time for reflection or the realization that the end of the year was fast approaching (that despite the repeated warnings of our webmaster/special projects adjunct Serge "Sid" Polishchuk that "the yearender is coming.")

Really, it seems like just yesterday that we unveiled the full texts of all 52 issues of The Ukrainian Weekly published in 2001 at www.ukrweekly.com, our newspaper's official website. The new addition was unveiled, as has become tradition, in February, on the anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian National Association, publisher of The Ukrainian Weekly. Included in the 2001 issues now online are 1,771 news stories and articles (not counting individual items in Newsbriefs) published during the course of the entire year. The Weekly's official website now contains 11,115 full-text articles. Notable among the 2001 issues are the newspaper's special sections dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence.

The Ukrainian Weekly Archive, which opened its official website on August 20, 1998, now contains full texts of all issues published in 1996 through 2001, as well as excerpts of the top news stories published each week during the current year. All sections of the site are searchable. The Ukrainian Weekly provides this website of archival materials as a community service. The site is maintained by the newspaper's production and editorial staffs.

For the record, during 2002, The Ukrainian Weekly published 1,715 articles (not counting individual "Newsbriefs" or "Preview of Events" items). The word "Ukrainian" was used 11,237 times; "Ukrainians" - 1,037 times; "Ukraine" - 9,695 times and "Ukraine's" - 2,257 times. Need we go on? This is, after all, The Ukrainian Weekly! Oh, and the total number of words published in 2002: 1,278,700 - a nice round number.

During the year, The Ukrainian Weekly celebrated a number of achievements and innovations.

The most notable was the release of "Ukraine Lives!" - a compilation of materials prepared on the occasion of the milestone 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence. The name of the book is taken from the title of The Weekly's editorial written in 2001 to mark a decade since the historic act of August 24, 1991, that once again placed the name "Ukraine" on the world map. Copies of "Ukraine Lives!" were mailed to The Ukrainian Weekly's subscribers in North America, as well as all members of the U.S. Congress.

The book contains contemporaneous reports on events leading up to the re-establishment of Ukraine's independence, as well as news reports filed from the scene by The Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau on that momentous day in 1991 when the Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR, proclaimed the independence of Ukraine. Also included are reports on the often tense and exciting events that transpired immediately thereafter, including the referendum of December 1, 1991, that affirmed the Ukrainian nation's overwhelming support for independent statehood.

Materials in the book are organized into chapters: "From Perebudova to Independence," "Independence: The Early Years," "The Tenth Anniversary," "Ukraine's Independence Day" (a collection of Weekly editorials published on each successive Ukrainian Independence Day, which gives a snapshot of both independent Ukraine's progress and the diaspora reaction) and "Attributes of Statehood."

The 288-page book also covers the compelling events that led up to independence. Thus, the book transports readers to Ukraine, then still part of the USSR, at the time of the newly proclaimed policies of glasnost, perestroika (or perebudova in Ukrainian) and demokratyzatsia. The volume contains unique materials related to Ukraine's first decade of independence - encompassing the fields of politics, the arts, religious life, philately, etc. - along with special reports, commentaries by scholars, observations by foreign leaders, and reflections by youths of both Ukraine and the diaspora related to the 2001 celebrations of the 10th anniversary of Ukrainian independence. Among the newly published materials in the book is an account of Ukraine's participation in the Olympic Games, from 1992 to 2000.

Besides the book (Roma Hadzewycz, editor; Serge Polishchuk, design/layout) our editors had other successes during 2002.

Roman Woronowycz of our Kyiv Press Bureau started the year off by covering the music scene in Ukraine with a three-part series, each of which featured two groups. "Pop, rock, hip-hop - Ukraine's music scene has it all - and it's thriving," read the headline.

Editor Andrew Nynka covered Ukraine's participation in the 2002 Winter Olympics from Salt Lake City and environs, as well as Team Ukraine's preparations before the Games in Sun Valley, Idaho, the team's official training site. (Thanks go to Laryssa Barabash Temple, attaché for the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee, for making this possible.)

Throughout the year our arts editor, Ika Koznarska Casanova was on the lookout for news and new talent in that realm. She succeeded in enlisting the cooperation of Alexandra Hawryluk of Montreal as a new arts writer, and the results included features such as those about artist Roman Kowal, known for his ecclesiastic interior design, and actor and director Gregory Hlady. In addition, Ms. Casanova's work and coordination with other writers highlighted the art of such new notables as photographer and tapestry artist Lialia Kuchma and painter Motria C. Holowinsky.

* * *

Unfortunately, The Weekly also was in mourning during 2002 as two people associated with the paper passed away.

Zenon Snylyk, former editor-in-chief of the Svoboda Ukrainian-language daily newspaper (1980-1998), and prior to that editor of The Ukrainian Weekly (1962-1980), died on January 21 at the age of 68. Mr. Snylyk devoted 36 years and four months of his life to work as an editor with publications of the Ukrainian National Association. He split that time equally between the UNA's two papers, and also was a member of the editorial staff of the two-volume Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia sponsored by the UNA and published by the University of Toronto Press. Mr. Snylyk always underlined that the role of UNA publications was to serve the Ukrainian community and the Ukrainian nation, and that these were his "imperatives" as an editor.

He was renowned also as an athlete. He was a three-time member of the U.S. Olympic Soccer Team (1956, 1960, 1964), and captained the 1956 and 1960 Olympic squads. He also played and/or led U.S. soccer teams that competed in the Pan-American Games and in a World Cup tournament, and was twice named an All-American. In addition, he coached and played for seven Ukrainian soccer teams during the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr. Snylyk chose to retire in 1998 before Svoboda was transformed, in accordance with a decision of the UNA Convention of that year, to a weekly newspaper. On June 18, 1998, his last day of work at the UNA Home Office, which by then had moved from Jersey City to Parsippany, N.J., Mr. Snylyk was feted at an informal gathering of the two UNA newspapers' editorial and production staffs, print shop and administration. In recognition of Mr. Snylyk's three most beloved pursuits, on the occasion of his retirement the staff of The Ukrainian Weekly prepared a special front page of the paper highlighting his days on the soccer field, at the editor's desk and on the tennis court.

Just three weeks after Mr. Snylyk's death, The Weekly and the Ukrainian community lost Lydia Wasylenko Smyk, 43, a beloved teacher at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic School in Newark, N.J., who died on February 14 after a long battle with cancer. During the last three years of her life Ms. Smyk also worked with the editorial staff of The Ukrainian Weekly on its UKELODEON section for children and youths. It was Ms. Smyk who came up with the name for the monthly section inaugurated on Valentine's Day 1999, illustrated the "Mykola Myshka" feature and prepared "Mishanyna," as well as articles bearing her byline. UKELODEON noted Ms. Smyk's passing, bidding her a final farewell on March 10.

Though she held a degree in English literature and had job experience in the fields of advertising and maintenance of historical archives, Ms. Smyk found her true calling in 1991, when she began teaching at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic School. She taught at the parochial school for 11 years, during that time teaching fourth grade and kindergarten. A tribute from her students at St. John's appeared in the April 14 issue of UKELODEON.

* * *

Our special features during the year included our second annual section devoted to Ukrainian debutante balls, published on March 24; our sixth annual supplement titled "A Ukrainian Summer," contained in our May 5 issue. The latter featured a dramatic photo of Kyiv's monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky against the backdrop of the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Sobor that appeared on the front page of that 12-page supplement along with the story "Historic Kyiv: a world-class capital city just waiting to be rediscovered," written by our Kyiv Press Bureau chief, Roman Woronowycz.

The original color version of that photo - taken by our colleague from the Associated Press, Efrem Lukatsky - took one's breath away. It was just what we were looking for to grace the cover of our latest book "Ukraine Lives!"

Also during the year, The Weekly focused several issues on the 50th anniversary of the Ukrainian National Association's Soyuzivka resort, culminating in an eight-page photo pull-out that appeared in the November 24 issue under the heading "Soyuzivka is ... memories."

Marta Kolomayets, once a member of The Ukrainian Weekly's editorial staff and a former Kyiv correspondent for the newspaper, and another former colleague of ours, Natalia Feduschak, authored a six-part series of articles on the "Renaissance of Kyiv," which was timed to appear before the Ukrainian Institute of America gala honored Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko as Man of the Year, who is seen as the chief architect of the capital city's rebirth.

We also marked the 69th anniversary of our paper. Our editorial on that occasion referred to some of the groundbreaking work done by the paper during the nearly seven decades of its service to our community. It reflected also upon the paper's extremely loyal readership without whom the paper would not be able to continue its mission, as well as the crucial role of its publisher.

Subscriptions do not even come close to supporting the work of this newspaper, we explained to our readers. Our advertisers and our benefactors do help foot the bill, and so do the generous donations to The Ukrainian Weekly Press Fund and the donations received along with payment for our aforementioned latest book - for which we offer most sincere thanks. But, frankly, without the financial input of our publisher, the Ukrainian National Association, neither The Weekly nor the Ukrainian-language Svoboda would exist. Both weekly newspapers are funded with hefty subsidies from the UNA - probably the best concrete example of the UNA's role as a fraternal benefit society that exists to benefit its members and their community.

Thanks were due also in 2002 to supporters of our "Copies for Congress" program, which provides gratis subscriptions to The Ukrainian Weekly for all members of the U.S. Congress based on the premise that this newspaper has served as the voice of our community and thus informs our legislators about our concerns and spurs them to action on issues important to us. As well, it provides information about developments in Ukraine that simply is not available elsewhere. Plus, The Weekly is the only newspaper that provides such information consistently, coherently and accurately.

The Ukrainian Weekly's "Copies for Congress" program during 2001-2002 was supported by eight credit unions, three professional organizations, three community organizations and four individual donors. Their contributions totaled $12,600. Each donation of $1,000 was acknowledged with a special sponsor's box that appeared on page 3 of The Weekly.

Finally, we must thank our administration, headed by Walter Honcharyk (still our top candidate for our Unofficial Man of the Year Award); our advertising manager, Maria Oscislawski (who still refuses to wear those sneakers she needs because of all the running around she does); and our subscription/circulation manager, Mary Pendzola (whom we began calling "president" of her one-woman "department" this year). It's great working with you all - your cooperation is much appreciated.

* * *

And that, Dear Readers, brings "2002: The Year in Review" to a close.

We hereby extend greetings and wishes of good health, good fortune and good humor to all of you for the New Year and beyond. Keep reading and keep in touch!

Oh, just one more thing...

The materials in this year-in-review section were prepared by Roman Woronowycz of our Kyiv Press Bureau, Roma Hadzewycz, Andrew Nynka and Ika Koznarska Casanova of our home office in Parsippany, N.J., Yaro Bihun in Washington, and our colleague and former staffer Deanna Yurchuk of New York City. We were also assisted by our two summer interns, Peter Steciuk and Andrew Olesnycky, who took some time out of their winter breaks to assist us. (As far as we're concerned, they can work any and all seasons they'd like...)

Needless to say (or is it?), the materials in this issue are dependent also on the many submissions from local activists, regular correspondents and free-lancers whose reports were published in The Weekly during 2002.

Special thanks are due also to our production team par excellence: the dynamic duo of Markian ("Markianchyk") Rybak and Awilda Rolon, without whose hard work and great spirits, often under trying circumstances, we could not have released this 48-page issue containing 34 solid pages of year-in-review material.

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