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FINDING THE PERFECT GIFT by Dr. Zofla Sywak What with spring and the round of graduations, en gagements and weddings, not to mention birthdays, christenings, first communions, Mother’s Day and Father's Day, there arises the problem of finding the per fect gift — one that will be remembered and treasured. The task may appear to be simpler than it actually is. The various shops, boutiques and department stores are crammed with eye appealing gadgets and knick- knacks in a variety of price ranges, the usefulness and need of which is questionable. After spending a day looking for the perfect gift, one realizes that the recipient has everything. Exhausted and confused, one usually ends up with some useless trinkets in the hope that the recipients will find some use for them. What a waste of time, energy and money. The wrapped gift is opened with enthusiasm and appropriate sounds of joy, "Gee! just what I’ve always wanted,” or even, "It’s lovely, what is it?” While inwardly the recipients wonder what they will do with it, if there is room in the attic or if it can be passed on to someone else. And yet, had we taken the time to think, instead of running to the store, we would have realized that there exists the perfect gift for any occasion — be it a Christmas gift for a loved one, a birthday gift for the boss or the ideal gift for a young couple starting out on their joint road in life — a gift that is unusual, relatively inexpensive, that will bring hours of joy and pleasure and, to top it off, is educational, cultural, and Ukrainian. You may doubt the author; think it is a figment of her imagination brought on by too much work or ex cessive cheers. No dear readers, there really is such a gift — a membership in The Ukrainian Museum. "Why of course,” you say, “Why didn’t I think of it, and save myself all those sleepless nights, miles of walking, the pushing and shoving, the hassle with sales personnel, the lugging of bundles, the wrapping and finally the anxiety that the recipient will get an identical gift or heaven forbid, two or three. "Aha!" you think, with a gleem in your eyes, "some one else can also give a year’s membership to the Museum and the recipient will be stuck with two or three memberships." Fear not dear reader. If one receives two or three memberships to The Ukrainian Museum, in actuality one received a two or three year membership — lucky person. So pull out your calendar and check out those birth days, weddings and graduations that are coming up. Laughingly, you draw up a list. But wait. Won’t the recipient think you’re cheap? A $25 gift for your best friend as a wedding present? Relax, the Museum has something for everyone, even for the big spender. There are family memberships for $50 annually; student and senior citizizen memberships for $10, or sustaining memberships for $100. If you’d really like to reward someone, like your parents, for the education that they made possible, you can make them benefactors of the Museum for $500. Or if you’d like to treat someone like a millionaire, how about making them a patron for $1,000. You can also give gift certificates. Just the thing for young persons, a gift certificate to the Pysanka or Embroidery Workshops. Maybe they’ll surprise YOU with a pysanka or a wyshywana servetka (tea cloth) for Christmas. The gift certificates can also be used in the Museum’s gift shop. And don’t forget the giver. Reward yourself with a membership. This way you will be sure not to miss any of the exhibits that everyone was talking about last year and you never found the time to see; have something to do on a rainy Sunday, or get that perfect Ukrainian folk art piece from the Museum’s gift shop to accent your home. At the same time you will enable The Ukrainian Museum to continue its work, to mount new exhibits, to help the Ukrainian-American youth identify with their ethnic roots and to share our culture and heritage with non-Ukrainians. Now that we have solved your problem of finding the perfect gift, The Ukrainian Museum in New York City looks forward to welcoming you and all your lucky friends and relatives as new members. UNWLA'S PYGMALION — BRANCH 32 We’re all fa m ilia r w ith Bernard Shaw’s "P y g m a lio n ’’ — the “ My Fair La d y" story o f a p o o r flo w e r g irl w ho was on the bottom of the social ladder sim ply because her English C ockney dialect was not accepted by the English upper class. Branch 32 o f Irving to n, N.J. is an E nglish-speaking branch o f an Ukrainian org an izatio n in an E nglish-speaking c ou ntry. But like Eliza D o o little we often feel stifled in o u r effo rts to co m m u n i cate. Everyone seems to know what we” re saying bu t w e ’re still not talking the same language. But none o f this stops us from ac tive p a rticip a tio n as a branch. T his past year has been a very active one starting w ith sponsoring a flag raising cerem ony fo r U krainian Independence Day in ou r com m u nity. O u r next venture was one we were very proud of: a m on th -lo n g ex h ib it o f U krainian fo lk art and special progam s at the W ood bridge P ublic Li brary. Its purpose was to educate the non-U kra in ian public. We ce rta in ly d o n ’t let ou r U krainian language de ficie ncy stop us from pa rti cip atin g in organizational events either. O ur sister branches m ight even say “ I’ve G row n A ccustom ed To Y our Face” since we were active particip ants in the re gional presidents’ dinner, the national con ven tion in New York City, members e xh ib its at both the Garden State Arts C enter U krainian Festival and the Festi val at Glen Spey, and we had represen tation at the annual regional art exhibit. O u r branch has been in existence fo r 11 years. “W o u ld n ’t It Be Lo verly" if we had a Henry Higgins available to teach us U krainian, but we d o n ’t, and we
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