Popular SUM "Oselia" in Ellenville to celebrate its 50th anniversary year (05/01/05)

A Ukrainian Summer: where to go, what to do...

Popular SUM "Oselia" in Ellenville to celebrate its 50th anniversary year

by Petro Kosciolek

ELLENVILLE, N.Y. - Members of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) this year invite the community to join in celebrating the golden anniversary of the well-known SUM "Oselia" near Ellenville, N.Y.

SUM members and countless Ukrainians from throughout the U.S., Canada, Ukraine and elsewhere, have had the good fortune to be affiliated with Oselia in some way: many grew up at Oselia, having spent summer vacations attending (and then staffing) the diverse camps offered year after year; others have been part of the sizeable crowds at the annual SUM "Zdvyh" and festival during Labor Day weekend; some may have experienced a spectacular wedding set at one of the outdoor chapels on its grounds, and then feasted on culinary delights prepared by Oselia's professional staff - all SUM members. Thus, Oselia has been host and home to countless memories for many.

The estate boasts a children's camp built in the style of a Zaporizhian Sich fort, indoor and outdoor banquet facilities, a motel building, an Olympic-size pool, a sports field with a quarter-mile track, tennis and basketball courts, playgrounds, a restaurant and a café.

Monuments dedicated to 20th century Ukrainian heroes create a striking backdrop to an outdoor stage, where concerts, speeches and other manifestations take place.

A new chapel has recently been built in the style of Ukrainian Lemko churches and will be blessed and dedicated during the fifth Lemko Vatra Festival on June 25-26 - the first event of this year's summer season.

A number of celebratory events to commemorate SUM Oselia's 50th anniversary have been planned. A formal jubilee banquet and cocktail party fund-raiser are scheduled for Saturday, July 9. Later in July, members and guests are invited to Family Fun Day celebrations, as well as the sixth annual Quads Grass Volleyball Tournament and a '50s night themed pub party. Other sporting events planned are a youth Olympiad, the annual softball tournament in August, and an anniversary soccer tournament.

A reunion of attendees of "Praktychni" Camps from 1991 to 1999 will be during the first weekend of August. The culmination of the summer season and the anniversary events will be the traditional SUM "Zdvyh" and the ever-popular festival during Labor Day weekend, one of the largest gatherings of Ukrainians in the Eastern U.S., this year featuring the world-famous Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus.

Oselia 50th anniversary events will be updated regularly on the website, www.cym.org/us/ellenville, as well on the pages of The Ukrainian Weekly throughout the summer. For more information or to be added to Oselia's mailing list, call (845) 647-7230 or e-mail [email protected].

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