EDITORIAL: A community database (09/28/03)

EDITORIAL

A community database

It's time for one of those editorials in which we share a bit of what our lives are like here at The Weekly and try to engage you in a community-wide action.

The matter at hand is our community groups. There are so many of them out there - who can keep track? Well, we do try, and we do have quite a list of organizations and leaders in our Rolodexes. We even keep a binder of the current letterheads of our community institutions, organizations, associations, groups, etc. - and, believe us, it comes in handy. Unfortunately, however, our experience has proved that this is not enough, that the information we have at our fingertips is sometimes inadequate to serve you, our readers, and others. Allow us to illustrate.

For example, just this past summer we received a letter from a Ukrainian community group in British Columbia that was looking for source of funding for its humanitarian aid shipments. Then there was a call from a gentleman who was interested in donating a collection of recordings to an appropriate library or archives. Soon thereafter came a call from two ladies in New Jersey who have a collection of original news stories from the 1930s about the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine who wanted to share this treasure with an appropriate entity, such as a museum. Plus there was a call from an immigration adviser in New York who needed information on how someone in Ukraine can get some legal advice on dealing with Canadian authorities, an e-mail from someone who feels her family is suffering ethnic/religious discrimination, and a personal appeal from someone who wanted to get medical textbooks for Ukraine.

We've had calls from people searching for fellow Ukrainians and community organizations in states well beyond what were once considered our established communities, e.g., New York, Philadelphia, Chicago. We've also fielded many questions about where to buy Ukrainian items, and, luckily, we have advertisers to whom we can direct potential customers. And, we regularly get calls and e-mails from non-Ukrainians, both individuals and organizations, who need some sort of Ukrainian connection.

In all these cases, The Weekly tries its very best to answer these questions and to direct those who contact us to the appropriate source. Sometimes, however, we come up short of information, which is what has led us to make this public appeal for your help in improving and updating our database.

If you're active in any kind of Ukrainian community group - and we don't care if you're the Ukrainian World Congress, or the local Ukrainian American Club in, say, Aliquippa, Pa. - we want to know about you. Send us your letterhead, a list of your officers, your contact person (preferably someone available during the daytime), your "koordynaty," as they say in Ukraine (your coordinates: mailing address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail address); send us a brief description of what your group does and who its members are. In short: send us any useful information that we can share with others.

So, help us help you and others. Send your group's information to: The Ukrainian Weekly (Community Database), 2200 Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054; fax, 973-644-9510; e-mail, [email protected]. This way, you'll be helping us, yourself, others - and, most importantly, our community at large. (PS: And don't forget to update us when your officers or "coordinates" change.)

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