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The Weekend Neos Kosmos : 26 November 2016
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DIGITAL.NEOSKOSMOS.COM THE WEEKEND NEOS KOSMOS | SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2016 3 NEWS a new chapter for Greek clubs Throughout 2016 a number of Victorian Greek clubs have been meeting to discuss ideas about how to better work together. As a result, they are proud to announce the culmination of their work in a new body titled Hellenism Victoria. "We started from the position that Greek syllogoi are an amazing accomplishment of our parents and grandparents. They came to a foreign country and built their own lives and they also built syllogoi," said Christo Fokianos of the Kos Club, one of the organisers. "The syllogoi are a testament to what Greeks can accomplish and important bodies in maintaining our culture. But attracting younger Greeks to the syllogoi has been difficult. So our meetings focused on how we could improve this." However, Hellenism Victo- ria is not a new syllogo, but a council of syllogoi. It won't have any members, assets or accounts, but is a body where one to two representatives of each syllogo can meet to discuss issues and share expertise. Its structure is something akin to a United Nations. John Mitsakos, president of the Panmessinian Brotherhood 'O Papaflessas', says he quickly saw the potential. "Where clubs are a community of individual members, this initiative is unique in that it's building a community of clubs," he said. "For the first time, smaller clubs are offered the opportunity to look beyond their borders, start thinking big and be a part of large projects that will make a much-needed difference to the greater Greek Victorian community. A truly exciting initiative." The new body will also be an opportunity for syllogoi to come together and work on larger initiatives that may be too large for individual clubs to tackle alone. "We really want to focus on giving back to the community. We wanted projects that make a difference, that promote pride in our Greek identity," said Constantina Mastoropoulos of the Olympian Society. "To begin with we focused on one high-quality initiative that would let us acknowledge where we have come from. The idea was to promote the younger generation to learn more about their past," the first of which was launched on 17 November. The Spirit of Hellenism Award is a competition open to all Year 9 students, and requires participants to research stories of Greek mi- grants and develop a presentation answering the question 'Describe contributions made by Greek migrants to Australian society'. "We felt it was important to promote the stories of the past, and important to promote the talents of the students," Ms Mastoropoulos said. Students can present poems, songs, digital presentations, artwork, or stories, as long as they have researched a story, talked to someone about the contributions of the migrant generation and created a presentation that will stand proudly. Having seen the potential in the initiative, Fronditha Care has offered its support with a $300 voucher. The overall winner will receive two return tickets to Greece. Another initiative being discussed is the creation of a unified event calendar of individual club events. "A lot of clubs put in a lot of hard work, and the only people who see it are their members and this is a shame," John Vithoulkas of the Olympian Society explained. "We were all troubled by this, and flipping this around we realised a second possible benefit of Hellenism Victoria. A Facebook page has been created and a central website is coming soon where all the individual club events are advertised. This would let me as a Greek Australian be better informed and attend events I previously did not even know about. “The better we can unify our calendar the more wonderful events we can attend that will enrich us and the community." The first members of Hellenism Victoria are Thessa- loniki Association 'The White Tower', The Hellenic Cultural Association of Melbourne 'O Periklis', the Kastellorizian Association of Victoria, the Kos Club Pankoaki Association of Victoria 'O Ippokratis', Pammesinian Brotherhood 'O Papaflessas', Pansamian Brotherhood of Melbourne 'O Pythagoras' and The Olympian Society. Membership is free and open to all Greek Australian syllogoi. There are many plans for future initiatives that will celebrate and support Greek Australians, Hellenic culture, identity and heritage. Greek syllogoi are welcome to join Hellenism Victoria and contribute to the discussion and new initiatives. You can like Hellenism Victoria through its Facebook page facebook.com/hellenismvictoria or contact the group directly via hellenismvictoria@gmail.com Hellenism Victoria: 54676 54853
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