UCC Delegation Meets with Minister of International Cooperation

(Left to Right: Renata Roman, Zenon Poticzny, Paul Grod, The Hon. Julian Fantino, Ann Szyptur, Borys Potapenko, Bohdan Onyschuk and Taras Pidzamecky)

(Зліва направо: Рената Роман, Зенон Поточний, Павло Ґрод, Джуліан Фантіно, Анна Шиптур, Борис Потапенко, Богдан Онищук, Тарас Підзамецький)

From the UCC press release (Ukrainian text follows):

On January 15, the leadership of the Ukrainian Canadian community met with Canada's Minister of International Cooperation, the Honourable Julian Fantino, M.P., P.C., to discuss the community's priorities relating to CIDA's Ukraine programming.

The delegation consisted of Mr. Paul Grod, President of the UCC; Ms. Ann Szyptur, Executive Board Member of UCC and Mission Canada 2012 Coordinator; Mr. Bohdan (Bob) Onyschuk Q.C., President of the Canada Ukraine Foundation; Mr. Zenon Poticzny, President of the Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce; Ms. Renata Roman, President of the Children of Chornobyl Canada Fund; Mr. Taras Pidzamecky, CEO of Ukrainian Credit Union Limited, past-president of Ukrainian National Federation and representative of the Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions of Canada; and Mr. Borys Potapenko, Executive Director of the League of Ukrainian Canadians.

"We conveyed our thanks to the Minister and to the government of Canada on the recent International Election Observation Mission which saw Canada send 500 election observers to Ukraine's Parliamentary elections," stated UCC National President Paul Grod. "We want to ensure that the government of Canada maintains a policy of engagement with Ukraine and we provided input to the Minister on the community's priorities and suggested areas of continued engagement. It is critical that Ukraine remains as a priority country for CIDA in order to support stability in a region that is facing significant democratic backsliding."

The delegation highlighted the need for development assistance to target those sectors where Canada has the knowhow and experience to benefit both countries. "It will be important for future CIDA programming and involvement to target sectors such as credit unions and producer cooperatives, and the small businesses and agricultural operations they support. Canada has a lot to offer in these areas," said UCU's Taras Pidzamecky.

The Ukrainian Waltz - A fun lecture

Speaking of events you ought to go to, like the movie lectures mentioned in the previous post, we highly recommend this multi-media lecture on the waltz. Based on the experience of previous lectures last year on the tango and foxtrot, this is one that you don't want to miss.

Unlike the tango or foxtrot, the waltz is a much older type of dance. As early as 1814, at the Congress of Vienna, Count Rozumovsky and other visitors from the Russian Empire were introduced to the waltz.

In Western Ukraine, with Vienna as its political capital, the dissemination of the waltz occurred quite naturally. And yet it was in Eastern Ukraine that a native waltz tradition first developed in the 19^th century.

By the 20^th century, the Ukrainian waltz established its particular melancholy character. During Soviet times, it became a vehicle for socialist realism propaganda.

Today, in Ukraine, the waltz is celebrated for its connection to European culture.

Come celebrate the history of the Ukrainian waltz with Wasyl Sydrenko!

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

We are always happy to find out about something we didn't know about! Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Ukrainian Cinema since Independence is about to roll out its 26th lecture! (Yikes, have we been living under a rock or what?)


Lecture 26, will feature The Firecrosser (2012) a film by director Mykhailo Illienko. The lecture, followed by a screening of the film, will take place at 6pm on February 14 at the Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave in Toronto.

This melodrama is inspired by the real-life story of one Ivan Datsenko (Ivan Dodoka in the film), native of the village of Chernechyi Yar in central Ukraine. He becomes a fearsome fighter pilot during World War Two, earning the highest military distinction bestowed by Stalin. He escapes first from a Nazi and then Soviet concentration camps, flees to Canada, where - suspend your disbelief - Datsenko allegedly becomes the chieftain of an Iroquois tribe. This is the first in years Ukrainian film that received a national distribution and enjoyed an unprecedented box-office success in Ukraine. Film is in Russian, Ukrainian, and some English with English subtitles.

The film will be introduced by Yuri Shevchuk, lecturer of Ukrainian language and culture and director of the Ukrainian Film Club at Columbia University, New York. Discussion will follow the film screening.

Lecture 27 titled Soviet Film and Stalin's War on Independent Peasants, 1920-1930 will follow on February 15 starting at 6pm in Room 108, North Building, Munk School of global Affairs at 1 Devonshire Place.

Both screenings are co-sponsored by the Petro Jacyk Program, the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, and the Ukrainian Film Club, Columbia University.

You can read more about these and earlier lectures at: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Win Tickets to Theatre Zahrava!

All tickets have now been won! See winners below.

We have tickets to see Drama Theatre Zahrava's premiere showing of Євангеліє від Івана!

Over the next few days we will be posting questions (a total of 5 questions) on our Facebook page. The first person to answer each question correctly in the comments below the Facebook post will win a pair of tickets to see Zahrava’s production of Євангеліє від Івана! Click HERE for the fifth (and last) question. Winners are listed below.

Only one pair of tickets per winner is available so once you win a pair, you won't be eligible for any more tickets, we want to give everybody a chance.

WINNERS:
1. Leda Hewka Lada
2. Alexey Makhinko
3. Alex Zakala
4. Inna Veselovska
5. Lyubov Bilan

The play will take place on February 17. Visit our Festivals and Events page on the blog for more details. Want to know more about Zahrava? Click HERE to view their Facebook page.

Employees of UCU are not eligible to win these tickets.

Donation for Holy Protection Church in Burlington

Rev. Zenon Walnyckyj, of the Holy Protection  Ukrainian Catholic Church
accepts a donation from Taras Jackiw of Ukrainian Credit Union Limited

Recently, just in time for Sv. Mykolya in fact, Taras Jackiw a member of the Hamilton Advisory Committee of Ukrainian Credit Union Limited, visited the parish of the Holy Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Burlington Ontario. There he met with Revered Zenon Walnyckyj to present him with a cheque for $2,000 as a gift to the parish from Ukrainian Credit Union Limited.

The parish is located in downtown Burlington and has a great community hall attached to it where many a zabava and wedding have taken place. Though the church does not seem to have a website, you can find some information about it here: St. Mary's UCC Burlington.

Your humble blogger is especially gratified by this gesture as St. Mary's was his home parish for about 15 years when he lived in Burlington. Good times, good times! Wonder what the Tyrsa and Rusalka dancers are up to?

CBC’s Rick Mercer Celebrates Malanka!

Rick visits Saskatoon, SK where he learns Ukrainian dance steps to help celebrate Malanka -- the new year according to the Julian calendar.

Watch the video below for more:

Investment Challenge - 2nd place prize awarded

The 2^nd Place Winner in our UCU Investment Challenge lll is Mr. Peter Trochanowski.  He dropped by to collect his $750.00 winnings in a Credential Securities Inc. account.

Michael Zienchuk, Manager of UCU Wealth Strategies Group,
hands Peter Trochanowski his prize for 2nd place in the
UCU Investment Challenge III

Peter is a long-time member of Ukrainian Credit Union, and has been an active participant in two UCU Investment Challenges. This is the first time Peter has finished in the winner’s circle. Peter is semi-retired, and outside of following the markets, Peter enjoys chess, mathematics, science, history, geography, politics – basically, he follows those things that make life tick!

We congratulate Peter on his strong performance in our challenge!

Malanka season swings into 2nd weekend!

Malanka season really got started on Friday January 11, and will continue pretty well through the last weekend of January! We wish everyone a fun and safe Ukrainian New Years! scroll down for links to photos.

To find out when upcoming Malankas are taking place, visit our Events and Festivals calendar.

We'll be posting photos from various Malankas on FB in the Malanka 2013 album. If you have photos you want to share, please send them to ydiakunchak@ukrainiancu.com along with a short note on which Malanka the photo is from, what is in the picture and the day it took place. We'll add it to our album.

Also we have an album with more photos from the St. Joseph's Family Malanka. We always let FatCat out for that Malanka as a lot of his fans attend.

Also you can see some photos taken by BongoPix at the St. Joseph's Malanka here: BongoPix St. Joseph.

Stay tuned to our Facebook page for more pix from the coming weekends.

Carollers drop by UCU branches

Carollers have begun visiting houses and businesses to celebrate Christmas in accordance with the Julian calendar. Check out a video of carollers visiting our Bloor branch.

Want to see more? Click HERE for our Facebook photo album with tons more pictures of carollers!

An evening of Ukrainian folk/jazz

Here's something interesting you might want to take a look at next week. On Wednesday, January 16th at 8pm, DoVira will be performing at the beautiful Musideum (Spadina and Richmond) in Toronto for an intimate evening of Ukrainian folk/jazz fusion music.

DoVira [do-VEE-ruh] is a new musical project based out of Toronto, Canada, that blends the roots of Ukrainian musical heritage with Western styles such as jazz, rock, experimental, and electronic music.

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, composer and multi-instrumentalist Stacey Yerofeyeva was immersed in Ukrainian folk music since an early age. Her late father, Kost' Yerofeyev, was the lead singer of the group Ruthenia, whose music was highly influential during the independence movement in the late 80's in Kyiv.

Yalynka Contest Results

Which one of our 14 staffed locations (12 branches plus Wealth Strategies Group and Head Office) had the nicest Yalynka? The visitors to our Facebook page have spoken!

St. Demetrius Branch (at 135 La Rose Avenue)
takes home 1st place with 98 votes!

Second place goes to the tree at Etobicoke Branch (on The East Mall).
Etobicoke tallied 43 votes

З Різдвом Христовим!

* Excerpted from: Колядуймо a joint project between Ukrainian Credit Union Limited and St. Vladimir's Institute. Over 3,800 copies of the book, a collection of Ukrainian carols and traditional Christmas greetings, was donated this year to schools, day care centres, churches and other community organizations to use during St. Nicholas Day, Christmas and Epiphany events in communities that UCU serves from Windsor to Ottawa and from Thunder Bay to St. Catharines.

Best wishes for the New Year

On behalf of all the employees and directors of Ukrainian Credit Union Limited, the staff of our Mississauga Branch wish everyone all the best in 2013!

May you play more, laugh more, love more, live more, give more, receive more, and celebrate more!

May you open to the vast possibilities and boundless love and wisdom of your grander truer self.

May the doors to your brightest futures swing wide open.

May you know the full extent of your worth and deserving and open to receive all that your heart desires.

May gifts, synchronicities, serendipities and successes dawn effortlessly in your world.

May you connect to and experience more of the love, beauty and light that you are.

May you sparkle and gleam with merriment and magic.

May your laughter refresh the world daily, brightening all those around you, including yourself.

May you know that you are loved, loving and loveable, ever and always.

May you enjoy a blessed and happy life, a life you truly LOVE!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of our members and friends!