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Heritage Day celebrates all things Polish
AUSTINTOWN
D’Ella Heschmeyer of Liberty admitted that when she was younger attending and dancing in Polish heritage events, she was “just doing what my mom told me.”
Now, a Cardinal Mooney High School junior and member of the Living Traditions Folk Ensemble based in Brecksville, D’Ella said she realizes how important her Polish heritage has become to her.
Speaking Sunday at the ninth annual Polish-American Heritage Day at St. Anne Ukrainian Catholic Church, organized and founded by her mother, Aundrea Cika Heschmeyer, and Angela Messenger of Canfield, D’Ella said she has immersed herself in her Polish heritage.
She visited Poland in 2010 with her family and, among other things, visited the family farm there. In the summer of 2014, D’Ella visited Poland independently and studied there for four months. At home, she has studied Polish and Hebrew.
“My heritage is a part of who I am. When you know where you come from, you know where you are going,” D’Ella said.
While D’Ella’s dance troupe was performing Sunday at another Polish event, helping the local Polish-American Heritage Day, sponsored by Youngstown Polish, were members of Echoes of Poland of Toledo celebrating its 50th anniversary by performing for the first time in the Mahoning Valley.
Youngstown Polish is an umbrella organization created in 2008 to inspire, promote and educate the Mahoning Valley on all things Polish.
“I’m proud to be Polish, and authentic folk dancing is a way of getting Polish people excited about their heritage,” said Rob Szczublewski of Toledo, a dancer, featured singer and former emcee of Echoes of Poland, which has five national dances and numerous regional dances in its repertoire.
The main speaker Sunday was John Feckanin of Cleveland, who told the story of how his church, Saint Casimir Church of Cleveland, part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland and designated “a personal parish for those Catholics of the Latin Rite of Polish descent” in Cleveland, successfully fought closure Nov. 9, 2009, ordered by the diocese.
Feckanin said the church members appealed its closure to the Vatican, and its members conducted more than 139 weekly prayer vigils in front of the padlocked church, eventually overturning the closure order.
Among the events Sunday was the seventh annual pirogi-eating contest, which raises the subject of food, which guests say is one of the main reasons for attending the festival.
“I love Polish people, food and entertainment,” said Linda Gruber of Cornersburg, whose grandmother and grandfather are 100 percent Polish and 100 percent Ukrainian, respectively.
Also interested in her heritage, Gruber said she visited Ellis Island where here grandparents landed in America. “I wanted to see what it was like. My grandmother, who spoke no English, eventually spoke five languages,” she said.
Mary Brown and her husband, Ryan, of Knox, Pa., brought her grandmother, Stella Jurina of New Castle, Pa., to the Youngstown event. “Her mother came from Poland. I think it’s fun. We go to as many events like this as possible,” said Mary.
Aundrea has involved her five children – D’Ella; Millie, 14; Sophie, 11; Auggie and Drew – into all things Polish.
Aundrea said she and her sister were raised to believe that “our Polishness should have almost the same passion as our faith, and we try to pass that along to our children.”