Gryshchenko presents Verkhovna Rada awards to Shevchenko Society officers (07/11/04)

Gryshchenko presents Verkhovna Rada awards to Shevchenko Society officers

by Dr. Orest Popovych

NEW YORK - On June 19, the Consulate General of Ukraine in New York hosted an awards ceremony in which Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko honored members of the governing board of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in America (NTSh) on behalf of Ukraine's Parliament.

Each of the awarded board members received a medal and a certificate from the Verkhovna Rada, signed by Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, with the inscription "for meritorious service to the Ukrainian people."

Serhiy Pohoreltzev, the consul general of Ukraine, opened the ceremony by introducing Foreign Minister Gryshchenko, who was on a working visit to Washington and New York. Mr. Gryshchenko welcomed the opportunity to perform this honorary function on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada, recalling his recent stint as Ukraine's ambassador to Washington and the ties it entailed with the Ukrainian American community.

After the awards were presented individually by Mr. Gryshchenko, Dr. Larissa Zaleska Onyshkevych, president of NTSh, expressed her gratitude to him and to the Verkhovna Rada on behalf of her society. She emphasized that much of the NTSh activity is directed towards promoting Ukrainian studies in Ukraine, which is accomplished by means of joint conferences with Ukrainian scholars and especially through scholarships, as well as grants for research and publications that are financed by NTSh. Since board members work on a voluntary basis, explained Dr. Onyshkevych, their only reward is usually the feeling of satisfaction for having aided Ukraine. Therefore, it is doubly satisfying to receive recognition from Ukraine for this work.

Dr. Onyshkevych presented Mr. Gryshchenko with a copy of "Pereiaslav Council of 1654," a recently published volume of collected works (in Ukrainian) whose publication in Kyiv was sponsored by NTSh. To Mr. Pohoreltzev Dr. Onyshkevych presented a copy of another NTSh publication, "Taras Shevchenko: A Life" (in English).

In addition to Dr. Onyshkevych, the following NTSh board members were present to receive their awards in person: Dr. Roman Andrushkiw, Svitlana Andrushkiw, Tatiana Keis, Olha Kuzmowycz, Dr. Orest Popovych, Dr. George Slusarczuk, Marta Tarnawsky and Dr. Roman Voronka. The awards for Dr. Volodymyr Stojko were picked up by his wife Yaroslava, and those for Dr. Volodymyr Vasylaki, by his daughter Kathryn.

Several of the awarded NTSh board members were unable to attend, mostly due to a conflict with the conference on Ukrainian Studies, at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. They were: Drs. Daria Dykyj, Paul Dzul, Assya Humesky, Taras Hunczak, Vasyl Markus, Andrij Szul, Swiatoslaw Trofimenko, Myroslava Znayenko and Prof. Martha B. Trofimenko.

The ceremony was attended also by Ukraine's Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Valeriy Kuchinsky and by Yuriy Klymenko, the director of the Fourth Territorial Directorate (Western Hemisphere) of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A social hour with a buffet brunch concluded the event.

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