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20 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИСТОПАД 2010 to St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Milwaukee. He had a strong presence — when he spoke , everyone listened. Fortunately, he knew that being immersed in another culture enhances the education of the whole person. Most importantly, he developed a genuine affinity for the Ukrainian culture and community. He encouraged the children to learn and to speak Ukrainian and to pursue activities within the Ukrainian community as a way to broaden their mental and emotional perspective on life. He saw the benefits of these things as contributing to the richness of our family life. He also realized the imp ortance of maintaining a relationship with grandparents, whose primary language was Ukrainian. Respecting and maintaining family ties was very important to him, and embracing the Ukrainian language and culture seemed a way achieve that better than anything else. As a result, each of my three daughters speaks Ukrainian, and each is trying to pass that on to her own children. Ted supported their trips to Ukraine to meet their relatives, and my middle daughter’s Rotary International Exchange to Lviv, where she spent her junior year of high school . You have been active in schools, on parish boards, and in Soyuz Ukrainok. How have these activities helped you to be a fulfilled community member and whole person? I am not sure where some of us get this need to be a contributing part of a community. Possibly from our parents. My parents, Roman and Natalia Martyniuk, God rest their souls, were very generous family people, always quietly and unassumingly active in community life, supportive of church and family, and re ady to serve when called upon — all this in addition to their regular jobs. Having said that, community activities I chose to be active in always complemented my family life. My number one priority was always my family, but work and community life have also been personally important — but in different ways. A profession is a wonderful thing and provides a wonderful sense of self worth and usefulness. But if that is all we have, we feel empty and useless when that disappears. This is especially true for women, because women often take time off from work to give birth to children and then take time off to see them through the “nurturing” years. The adjustment from the work place to a home place can be difficult, to say the least. There are times when I could simp ly not do both. Yet, I had something fall back on when without a job. I found that being involved in community life, which often included my children, expanded my feeling of self worth and maybe even more importantly, my feeling of belonging to and contrib uting to something larger than my nuclear family. Please explain your role in the Ukrainian Con - sulate and Club 500. “Club 500” (500 people at $500) was organized in 1992 by a Soyuzianka, the late Dr. Daria Markus. Daria mobilized the diaspora community to establish Ukraine’s diplomatic presence in Chicago, which was the first Consulate General of Ukraine in North America. I was a member of Club 500 from the start, although I did not live in Chicago at that time. For supporting this effort, the Ukrainian - American community in Chicago and vicinity is owed a debt of gratitude. In 1993, Daria Markus left for Kyiv, and Daria Jarosewich, another Soyuzianka, took her place and completed the effort. Having reached its fund - raising goal, “Club 500” transitioned i nto “The Friends of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago,” which, with new by - laws, became a supportive and advisory organization. Yet another Soyuzianka, Lydia Shandor (now Devonshire), became the third president of “The Friends.” When I moved bac k to Chicago (where I grew up) in 1997 , I was invited to assist Lydia in her volunteer work at the Consulate. Later, in 1998, I (also a Soyuzianka) was elected the fourth president of the “Friends of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago.” The organi zation evolved to meet many different needs during those early days of Ukrainian diplomatic presence in the United States. American language, customs, protocol, laws and regulations, business interactions and arrangements, community presence, all presented new challenges and uncharted waters for Ukrainian diplomats and staff. I became actively engaged in many ongoing projects, programs, and cooperative ventures linking the Consulate General with city, state, and com - munity organizations to help facilitate U kraine’s mission. I am very proud to have had this oppor - tunity to serve Ukraine during these eleven years (1998 – 2009). The culmination of the work of our orga - nization is presented in a recent publication entitled “Short History of the Friends of the Con sulate General of Ukraine in Chicago — Club 500: 1992 – Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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