Crowd turns out for Ukrainian festival in Horsham
The Intelligencer, Sunday, August 24, 2014
By Anne Freedman

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More than 1,000 [sic., over 2,300 attended] Ukrainians and “Ukrainians for the day” enjoyed folk music, crafts and dancing on Sunday at the Ukrainian American Sports Center in Horsham in celebration of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union 23 years ago.

“It of course, in the ordinary course, is an extremely joyous experience,” said Eugene Luciw, an executive board officer of the Ukrainian American Sports Center and organizer of the 23rd annual Ukrainian Folk Festival.

This year, however, the actions of Russia following the toppling earlier this year of the “corrupt government” of President Viktor Yanukovich, were on many minds, Luciw said.

“The response by Russia — now that it lost Ukraine as a vassal state through this corrupt government — was to attack,” he said. “We lost Crimea to this attack and now in Eastern Ukraine, there are events to take over the two eastern most provinces.”

The sports center planned to donate a “significant” amount of its proceeds from the day to humanitarian relief for the Ukrainian military, he said.

Among the crafts, jewelry, embroidered clothing, soccer shirts, pottery, foods and other items for sale sat a table for the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, which was seeking donations both for the military and for the refugees of Eastern Ukraine, said Bo Pazuniak, of Jenkintown, who serves on the UASC board.

“Ukraine is a very poor country,” he said. “It’s one of the poorest countries in Europe. ... We do what we can to help our brethren.”

In addition to clothing for the refugees, the donations will buy knapsacks and medical supplies for the Ukrainian army, he said. “Ukraine was never in the position to defend itself,” he said, noting that its equipment is being purchased “from the local version of Wal-Mart.”

Pazuniak said he has exchanged “a heck of a lot of emails” with his relatives in Ukraine, and they are safe.

“Luckily, right now, the war, which is Mr. Putin’s idea, is limited to a limited part of the country but Putin’s concept is to weaken Ukraine by pushing in small, little knives in the side until Ukraine bleeds to death,” he said.

But even as turmoil and fear for their ancestral homeland lingered, the lively traditional dancing and music took center stage to the cheers of the crowd.

Peg Miceli, of Conshohocken, and Marjorie Aronow, of Doylestown, came for the dancing and the singing, Miceli said. “It’s pretty impressive.”

Dawn and Patrick Caramanno, of Scranton, brought 13 people to enjoy the festivities, which included performances by Iskra Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, violinist Innesa Tymochko Dekajio, Vox Ethnika Band and SPIV-Zhyttya a cappella choir.

“It’s not just important to support our heritage, but it’s in support of (the country’s) plight,” said Dawn Caramanno.

Halyna Mudryj, of Baltimore, who was exhibiting pysanka eggs that can take from an hour to days to create, said she expected a bigger crowd at the event than usual because of the events in Eastern Europe.

“I personally think that Ukraine will win. I think they are going to prevail. I really do,” she said. “No one has managed to destroy our culture in all of these hundreds of years that Ukraine was occupied. We are a very ancient culture.”