Organization uniting Lemkos looks at the needs of new generations
by Diana Howansky
YONKERS, N.Y. - When Stefan Kurylo's turn came to speak at the March 8 meeting of the Yonkers, N.Y., branch of the Organization for the Defense of Lemko Western Ukraine, he told his fellow members he was stepping down from the position of secretary.
After years of taking minutes at meetings, he was not stepping down because he was tired of the responsibility. Mr. Kurylo was giving up the position because, being 79 years old, he could not see the words on the page anymore, he said.
As its original members grow old, the Organization for the Defense of Lemko Western Ukraine, known by the acronym OOL, is looking for ways to attract younger members to its ranks.
"The biggest challenge for OOL now is to recruit the young," said OOL's president, Zenon Halkowycz, who attended the meeting in Yonkers. "OOL, like every Ukrainian organization, never thought about its youth. They always assumed that they will be invincible and forever."
Founded in 1936
The Organization for the Defense of Lemko Western Ukraine was first established in the U.S. in 1936. Its original members emigrated from the Lemko region, or Lemkivschyna, which is now located in south-eastern Poland, but which OOL's members consider to be Ukrainian ethnolinguistic territory. Once a compact, mountain community, the Lemkos were scattered during the World War II period, first, by a Polish-Soviet agreement that forcibly relocated 482,000 Ukrainians from Poland to the Soviet Union during 1944-1946 and, second, by the forcible relocation campaign known as "Akcja Wisla," which resettled over 140,000 Lemkos to northern and western Poland in 1947, according to historian Eugeniusz Misilo's estimates.
The stated goals of OOL include organizing Lemko Ukrainians in the U.S., fostering Ukrainian culture, language, music and traditions, and providing moral and material support to those born in the Lemko region and their descendants. The organization has 11 active branches across the U.S. Among OOL's activities are organizing "zabavy," or dances, publishing the magazine Lemkivschvna, and fund-raising to support the renovation of Lemko churches in Poland.
But OOL plans to organize new programs that will include the younger generation of Lemko Ukrainians, who are working professionals able to bring fresh skills and ideas to the table, Mr. Halkowycz said. OOL needs to develop activities that are interesting to the youth and in which they will feel comfortable participating, he added.
Lemko Vatra
Mr. Halkowycz considers OOL's annual Vatra, or summer festival, to be such an activity. Started in June 2001, the Lemko Vatra is held each year at the Ukrainian American Youth Association resort in Ellenville, N.Y., in the Catskill region. Just as OOL's sister branches in Poland organize a festival each summer in the Lemko region's low, rolling mountains to bring Lemkos back together on their ancestral territory, OOL members in the U.S. organize the Vatra to remember and celebrate their heritage. The Vatra in Ellenville includes a cultural performance of Lemko song and dance, as well as a zabava at night.
To attract younger Lemkos, OOL needs to ask which activities they find interesting and then create these activities, said Steve Kapitula, who, at 47, is one of the youngest members of OOL's Yonkers branch.
Mr. Kapitula, who was born in Poland and came to the U S. when he was 9 years old, said that his father forced him to join OOL. His father is now deceased, but Mr. Kapitula continues to play an active role as branch treasurer.
"It's something that needs to be continued, doing a service to our people. And it's important enough to sacrifice our time," Mr. Kapitula said. "What hurts the most is the roots. The big picture is that they uprooted us, and the roots have been broken and we have to try to reroot."
Mr. Kapitula's own sons, age 17 and 13, are beginning to ask questions about their Lemko heritage. Mr. Kapitula plans to nurture this interest by taking them to Lemkivschyna this summer.
Forty-two-year-old Andriy Khomyk, also considered one of the Yonkers OOL branch's younger members, said that OOL needs to adapt and change in order to accommodate the American youth who have no direct tie to Lemhvschyna. Mr. Khomyk, himself, is a native of Ukraine and moved permanently to the U.S. in 1999, but his parents were born in the Lemko region.
"No one can belong to an organization that belongs to their grandparents' memories," Mr. Khomyk said. "Maybe it's a pity, but this organization has to be more English and more American. We have to build something interesting for American Ukrainians."
Maintaining Lemko culture
Mr. Khomyk said that OOL should concentrate on passing along Lemko culture to the younger American generations, considering that the forcible relocation campaigns of the 1940s practically destroyed the Lemko region.
"The one thing that is left is Lemko culture," Mr. Khomyk said. "I think the major goal for such an organization is to restore and keep the culture. To bring our culture back alive - our song, our folklore."
And the older members of the OOL Yonkers branch have made sure that Mr. Khomyk is part of the next wave of Lemko Ukrainians in the U.S. who will pass on traditions and guide the organization's course. Handing him a book with detailed minutes of previous OOL annual meetings, the Yonkers branch members elected Mr. Khomyk to succeed Mr. Kurylo and to take over the position of secretary.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 13, 2004, No. 24, Vol. LXXII
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