[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 22870-22871]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            TRIBUTE TO ST. GEORGE'S HELLENIC BENEFIT SOCIETY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 26, 2008

  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the St. 
George's Hellenic Benefit Society of Tsamantas in Worcester, 
Massachusetts, for its generous contributions to communities both in 
the United States and Greece. The Society is a not-for-profit fraternal 
organization that seeks to promote and preserve Greek heritage and 
culture in America and is celebrating its centenary in October of 2008.
  For the past 100 years, the St. George's Society has helped friends 
and neighbors in Worcester, MA, and Tsamantas, Greece in a variety of 
ways. Some examples include building a school in the village of 
Tsamantas in the 1930s, offering financial support for a development 
workshop held at Tsamantas in September 2005 to help its declining 
economy, and funding scholarships for the grandchildren and great-
grandchildren of the original immigrants in America. The St. George's 
Society is active in promoting education in the immigrant community 
through its generosity and involvement in the teaching of Greek 
Heritage, especially focusing on the contributions Greeks have made in 
the United States.
  The St. George's Society will celebrate its founding through a series 
of events and activities to be held on Sunday, October 11, 2008. The 
goal of these events is to recognize and honor the contributions made 
by Greek immigrants and Greek-Americans throughout the United States 
and the world. The first event will take place at the Worcester Art 
Museum and seeks to educate the greater Worcester community about the 
social and philanthropic contributions made, both in Europe and the 
United States, by Greek immigrants--including those who founded the 
Society. A commemorative symposium will then take place at St. Spyridon 
Greek Orthodox Church in Worcester to discuss history, and is meant 
especially to remind the children and grandchildren of immigrants about 
the importance of preserving their heritage and participating in 
community service. The third event of the day, an interdisciplinary and 
multidisciplinary academic conference on immigration to be held at 
Hellenic College in Brookline, MA, aims to bring together specialists 
from a variety of disciplines to examine issues of identity and 
belonging, and the relationship between the past and the present in the 
context of cultural globalization. The conference will make a 
significant contribution to public understanding about the identity and 
culture of diasporic societies and inspire future research in this 
area.
  Madam Speaker, I commend this wonderful group for its dedication to 
the Worcester and international community in promoting education and 
giving financial aid to students, for supporting research and promoting 
public works. I congratulate the St. George's Society for the 
centennial celebration of its founding. I ask all of my colleagues join 
me in paying tribute to this fine example of community involvement.

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