Czech and Slovak Newsletter - April 2011

Dear friend,

This is the Easter issue of the Czech and Slovak Newsletter. We hope your holidays will be peaceful and traditional. Make sure to catch up with fellow countrymen, and to help you out a bit, here is a few ideas where to go and what to do. Please, use the opportunity to spread the word about the community activities and let your friends know they too can subscribe to the newsletter at http://vodafest.org. Thank you!

Easter Dinner Party

The Slovak Social Club "Ludovit Stur" are having an Easter dinner party on the Easter Sunday night, to which everybody is welcome. This is what their Facebook invitation says:

Come and enjoy the night with friends, great food, entertainment provided by our Slovak band Zmena 5 and we might even have a special visit by the Easter bunny on the night. Just don't forget to get in touch with Andy Guljas on guljasam@gmail.com or 0401684215 and book your tickets. Hope to see you there. Entry fee, including smorgesbord dinner, is $20 for club members, $30 for non-members.

Date: Sunday, 24. April from 7pm
Location: Slovak Social Club, 105 Triholm Avenue, Laverton VIC

Easter Monday Picnic

If you'd like to meet with fellow Slovaks and Czechs on the Easter Monday, please, join us at the picnic. It takes place at the Finns Reserve, which has a good playground for children and nice walks, too. Bring along an Easter platter to share with others and drinks.

Date: Monday, 25. April from 11am
Location: Finns Reserve/Wombat Bend (Corner Union Street), Templestowe (Melway ref. 33 A4)

Easter Workshop for Everyone

What Maria Garland and a number of volunteers organized for last Saturday was a great way for adults to recall many of the Eastern European Easter traditions and for children to learn what Easter is like in their parents' motherland. They all got to try various methods of decorating egg shells, making Morena dummy and throwing it in the fire, and more activities to keep them busy throughout the day. Many thanks to those who brought platters full of traditional snacks or even prepared meals on site for what was one massive Easter feast.

The Easter Workshop was just another successful event organized by Maria and friends, a combination of children activities and the Slovak and Czech traditions. Please, let us know of your friends and their children who could be interested and we'll keep them updated on the upcoming events.

Czech and Slovak Night at Koliba

For once again, the most recent Czech and Slovak Night at Koliba was even bigger than the previous one. Thanks to the members of the dance group Ludovit Stur, for the first time we had live music and some pretty good singing, too. Numbers of fellow Czechs have also increased and with 50 portions of Segedin Goulash served and almost three kegs of beer consumed on the night, our little get-togethers may have started to reach the capacity of the restaurant.

Slovaks in Australia 2012: The Calendar

The calendar print design is to be finished over the holidays and will be ready for printer within a week or two. Along with a photo gallery and magazine articles, a video filmed and edited by Stefan Tucek is now available at the calendar website, depicting the day of shooting of the calendar. The website is now almost complete with an e-shop ready for you to order your calendar once it's ready. For all information, please, visit http://slovaksinaustralia.com.au/2012

VodaFest 2012

The VodaFest Steering Committee is now calling all volunteers to step forward. Most of you would agree that for a free-time community project run by a bunch of volunteers with no previous experience, the organisation of the first VodaFest was on a pretty good level. To keep it up and move it further, we're going to need a number of enthusiasts keen to help the community. Please, reply to this message and let us know if you'd like to help, or call Lenka Allen at 0418 388 689.

Volunteer Teachers Needed

The Slovak Social Club "Ludovit Stur" provides a variety of educational programs aimed at maintaining the Slovak culture, traditions and language within the community. For their school, they are currently seeking volunteers to help with teaching of dancing and teaching of Slovak language. Classes take place on Sundays, last up to 2 hours and are headed by a professional teacher, so no formal education is needed to participate. For details, please, call Tanja Sasik on 0413 117 791.

We are wishing you and your families a very Happy Easter Holiday!