Regional Rally South, Derby – Review and pictures

On June 4, 2016 the Derby Ukrainian Cultural Centre hosted the Regional Rally for the Central and Southern regions of CYM in GB under the banner of “Ukraine Starts with You”.

Derby CYM members had prepared the centre’s premises to welcome CYM members from six other oseredky (branches) namely Wolverhampton, Waltham Cross, Coventry, Nottingham, Leicester and London decorating the concert hall with colourful  Ukrainian embroidery.

The formal events of the day started with a prayer service led by Father David Senyk at the end of which he wished all the participants a successful performance. Joseph Kupranec of Derby who served as commandant for the rally, then received reports from all of the seven attending oseredky and the Vice Chairman of the National Executive Committee, Bohdan Prychidnyj addressed the participants ending with the CYM  slogan of ” Chest  Ukrayiny” with the  audience  responding to this with ” Hotov Boronyty”.

Nadia Surma recited the official ‘nakaz’ and the participants sang the CYM anthem “Vhory Prapory”. Commandant Joseph Kupranec and Vice Chairman of the National Executive Committee Bohdan Prychidnyj also wished all the participants good luck and hoped that they would enjoy the day. Amidst loud applause and accompanying Ukrainian marching music, the banners of each of the 7 oseredoks were carried out of the hall to mark the closure of the official part of the programme.

In the ensuing break, Derby ladies served a choice of varennyky with onions or burgers, supplemented by tea, coffee and cake.  This was followed by a show consisting of 26 wonderful and often emotional performances of   Ukrainian songs, poetry and of course Ukrainian-dancing competing for places to perform in the national rally in Tarasivka on 2nd July 2016.

The jury which had the unenviable task of judging the talented performances was headed by Deputy Chairman of KY CYM Bohdan Prychidnyj with representatives from each oseredok being: Maria Djiuba-Mitchell of Coventry; Markian Stasiw from Derby; Hanya Dezyk from London; Oksana Tyminska from Nottingham; Christina Skrypka from Waltham Cross and Dmytro Bachyk from Wolverhampton.

During the deliberations of the jury, Joseph Kupranec and Maria Dzula drew the raffle with the prizes having been generously donated by all the branches. The audience was then entertained by a concert piece – a quartet from Derby Hoverla who danced the Hopak.

The jury praised all the performances and announced the results to the cheers of the audience.

Commandant Joseph Kupranec and Bohdan Prychidnyj then thanked everyone who helped prepare for the event particularly Andrij Kaminskyj and Peter Wintoniuk for the setting up of the stage and its decorations.

Further thanks were given to  Maria Dzula for announcing all the concert items, Andrij Kaminskyj,  Petrus and Andrij Stasiw for the technical sound equipment. They also thanked those from Derby who worked in the kitchen preparing and serving the food, all those who helped setup the bars and served throughout the day and all others who helped to make the day such a special event.

The event was closed with everyone singing the Ukrainian national anthem.

Nadia Surma & Joe Kupranec