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JANUARY 2012

Busy holiday season, as always, and we received the best present for Old Calendar Uke Christmas: a visit from Vladimir and Vitalij Klitschko! The Brothers are filming a documentary about their lives, and they chose US to help them share their Ukrainian heritage with all of their followers and fans. It was a lightning fast but amazing afternoon, and we hope to see them again soon!

Top left: Scooter looking shorter than ever, greeting Vitali with the Pryvit bread
Top right: The crew films the Brothers as the Danilyv brother dance "Chumak"
Bottom left: The Brothers graciously sign autographs for us
Bottom right: The Brothers with our Brothers!
Below: Taisa & Stefan posing with the stylish Brothers Klitschko!

Congratulations to Airman Lotocky! Tanya graduated Basic Training in the Air Force on January 5th; she continues now with technical training (in munitions!) and we can't wait to see her when she gets to take leave!

Tanya and sibling Dancers Nick and Sonya; Tanya and her Dancer mom, Hanya.
May the Air Force be with you!

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

We had a great time dancing at Oktoberfests . . .

The girls enjoy a good Chicken Dance while Rich gets ready at Old Heidelberg Restaurant

Having fun at the GASC Oktoberfest in Cape Coral, FL

. . . and bid a good luck to Dancer Tatiana Lotocky, who is joining the Air Force: you make us so proud!

At left, Tanya cuts her cake
at a farewell gathering at
Assumption Ukrainian Church;

Below: Tanya's swearing in
and posing with her mother,
Dancer Hanya Maksymowich Lotocky

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AUGUST 2011

Ukraine just celebrated its 20th anniversary of independence, and the Ukrainian-American Club of Miami gave the occasion a summertime-like twist with its first ever Independence Day event, Saturday, August 20th. It was a really fun way to mark this milestone in Ukraine's journey, and everyone who attended had a fantastic time!

There were music videos from Ukraine to entertain as people enjoyed Ukrainian food such as varenyky, borscht, mizeria and kobasa; for the young (and young at heart) there was a bounce house, cotton candy, and carnival games (word has it Dancer Natalka Bilynsky was carnival champion!) with lots of great prizes handed out! A gift shop table offered various items at exceptional prices, and guests were treated to the bilingual funny bone of Roman Romaniv. Before the zabava, all in attendance marched in procession outside, where our national anthem, "Shche ne v merla Ukraina" was sung as fireworks lit up the night--a first for South Florida's Ukrainian community!

(l) Iwan Wenglowskyj whips up some Ukrainian flag-blue cotton candy while his daughter Anya waits for more;
(r) Guests watch really cool music videos (Ruslana's latest is pretty incredible!)

(l) Entries in the torte-making contest; Karyn Maksymowich Wilk was chosen champ, but everyone who ate
some cake was a winner!
(r) Tatiana, Daria and Harrison prove that Ukrainians have even more fun when they grow up!

(l) Of course, Sonya, Natalka, Tara and Anya would say that they had the most fun!
(r) Club President Donna Maksymowich-Waskiewicz dishing out the almighty varenyky

SLAVA UKRAINI! SEE YOU ALL NEXT AUGUST!

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JULY 2011

Hey, everyone! Summertime here is usually pretty quiet—a lot of us are on vacation, traveling, some are at workshop (or at Soyuzivka watching workshop!)—and we generally don't have any performances. Not so this year! We've kicked off our 2011-2012 season already, starting with the beautiful wedding of Olesh Pleshkewych and Christine Wolaniuk in NorthPort, Florida. Six of the Performing Group vanned over there, sang with the choir for the wedding ceremony, and then treated the wedding guests to a few dances (including getting a bunch of them to join us for snowstorm!

Everyone at the wedding had a great time, but we think we had just as much fun! We met a lot of wonderful people (including Starosta Bohdan "Bob" Oleksiw, pictured with us below), and thanks to DJ Sasha (a.k.a. our own Alex Veshtebey), we boogied in our boots to the very end. The best part? Olesh and Christine are moving down here, to South Florida, so we've just gained two great members of our Ukrainian community!

Next on our summer activities was performing UNICEF on local channel 41's "El Show de Fernando Hidalgo," a variety show with a fun and good-natured spirit that we were happy to be a part of. We'd like to thank everyone involved with the show and the station for their hospitality--we danced well and had a great time!

Click on our picture to see our performance!



	What are we up to (or thinking about) right now? Follow us on Twitter!

JANUARY 2012 Busy holiday season, as always, and we received the best present for Old Calendar Uke Christmas: a visit from Vladimir and Vitalij Klitschko! The Brothers are filming a documentary about their lives, and they chose US to help them share their Ukrainian heritage with all of their followers and fans. It was a lightning fast but amazing afternoon, and we hope to see them again soon! Top left: Scooter looking shorter than ever, greeting Vitali with the Pryvit bread Top right: The crew films the Brothers as the Danilyv brother dance "Chumak" Bottom left: The Brothers graciously sign autographs for us Bottom right: The Brothers with our Brothers! Below: Taisa & Stefan posing with the stylish Brothers Klitschko! Congratulations to Airman Lotocky! Tanya graduated Basic Training in the Air Force on January 5th; she continues now with technical training (in munitions!) and we can't wait to see her when she gets to take leave! Tanya and sibling Dancers Nick and Sonya; Tanya and her Dancer mom, Hanya. May the Air Force be with you!

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011 We had a great time dancing at Oktoberfests . . . The girls enjoy a good Chicken Dance while Rich gets ready at Old Heidelberg Restaurant Having fun at the GASC Oktoberfest in Cape Coral, FL . . . and bid a good luck to Dancer Tatiana Lotocky, who is joining the Air Force: you make us so proud!
		At left, Tanya cuts her cake at a farewell gathering at Assumption Ukrainian Church; Below: Tanya's swearing in and posing with her mother, Dancer Hanya Maksymowich Lotocky


Back to top

AUGUST 2011 Ukraine just celebrated its 20th anniversary of independence, and the Ukrainian-American Club of Miami gave the occasion a summertime-like twist with its first ever Independence Day event, Saturday, August 20th. It was a really fun way to mark this milestone in Ukraine's journey, and everyone who attended had a fantastic time! There were music videos from Ukraine to entertain as people enjoyed Ukrainian food such as varenyky, borscht, mizeria and kobasa; for the young (and young at heart) there was a bounce house, cotton candy, and carnival games (word has it Dancer Natalka Bilynsky was carnival champion!) with lots of great prizes handed out! A gift shop table offered various items at exceptional prices, and guests were treated to the bilingual funny bone of Roman Romaniv. Before the zabava, all in attendance marched in procession outside, where our national anthem, "Shche ne v merla Ukraina" was sung as fireworks lit up the night--a first for South Florida's Ukrainian community! (l) Iwan Wenglowskyj whips up some Ukrainian flag-blue cotton candy while his daughter Anya waits for more; (r) Guests watch really cool music videos (Ruslana's latest is pretty incredible!) (l) Entries in the torte-making contest; Karyn Maksymowich Wilk was chosen champ, but everyone who ate some cake was a winner! (r) Tatiana, Daria and Harrison prove that Ukrainians have even more fun when they grow up! (l) Of course, Sonya, Natalka, Tara and Anya would say that they had the most fun! (r) Club President Donna Maksymowich-Waskiewicz dishing out the almighty varenyky SLAVA UKRAINI! SEE YOU ALL NEXT AUGUST!
Back to top
JULY 2011 Hey, everyone! Summertime here is usually pretty quiet—a lot of us are on vacation, traveling, some are at workshop (or at Soyuzivka watching workshop!)—and we generally don't have any performances. Not so this year! We've kicked off our 2011-2012 season already, starting with the beautiful wedding of Olesh Pleshkewych and Christine Wolaniuk in NorthPort, Florida. Six of the Performing Group vanned over there, sang with the choir for the wedding ceremony, and then treated the wedding guests to a few dances (including getting a bunch of them to join us for snowstorm! Everyone at the wedding had a great time, but we think we had just as much fun! We met a lot of wonderful people (including Starosta Bohdan "Bob" Oleksiw, pictured with us below), and thanks to DJ Sasha (a.k.a. our own Alex Veshtebey), we boogied in our boots to the very end. The best part? Olesh and Christine are moving down here, to South Florida, so we've just gained two great members of our Ukrainian community! Next on our summer activities was performing UNICEF on local channel 41's "El Show de Fernando Hidalgo," a variety show with a fun and good-natured spirit that we were happy to be a part of. We'd like to thank everyone involved with the show and the station for their hospitality--we danced well and had a great time! Click on our picture to see our performance!