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Queens Gazzete, May 30th, 2008
As an international audience of 300 persons gathered at the Pan Macedonian Studies Center in Whitestone applauded, scholarships were conferred on three students enrolled in the Modern Greek Language and Literature program at St. John’s University. George Stamboulis and Calliope Pappas each received a 2008 Panchiaki Korais Society scholarship and Anthony Michaelides of Flushing received the 2008 Theodore Spyropoulos scholarship at the Pan-Macedonian Conference on May 30.
Panchiaki Korais Society President Kostas Kojes presented Stamboulis and Pappas with the Panchiaki Korais Society scholarship and Nancy Biska, governor of the Pan Macedonian District of Greater New York, presented the Spyropoulos scholarship to Michaelides.
The Panchiaki Korais Society scholarship program was initiated in 2000 and has awarded $9,000 in scholarships to St. John’s students.
Michaelides is an honor student at St. John’s University and a co-editor of “The Greek American Experience II” by Professor Catherine Tsounis, sponsored through a grant by the Pan Macedonian Studies Center and state Senator Frank Padavan.
280 Artifacts and works of art that reveal the history of the luminous Minoan culture of Crete to the metropolis of USA, New York
By Nancy Biska, ΚΡΗΤΗ Magazine, April 2008
The interest of the American Press and hundreds of visitors daily is focused on the artifacts of the Minoan Civilization which are exhibited at the “Alexander Onassis” Foundation at the Olympic Tower in Manhattan, New York. The exhibition was co-organized by the “Alexander S. Onassis” Public Benefit Foundation in USA, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological museums of Crete, with the cooperation of the Pancretan Association of America.
Photo by MARIA TOLIOS
By Clem Richardson, Monday, November 5, 2007, DAILY NEWS
The summer wildfires swept across the already sun-scorched land, consuming everything in the way and leaving ashes in their wake. The devastation was incredible – at least 67 people killed, 1,100 homes and 427,000 acres of forest and farmland destroyed. This wasn’t sunny Southern California last month, but Greece in August, when some 170 wildfires, some of them arson blazes, rampaged through Mount Taygetos and other portions of Peloponnese in Southern Greece.
Kyriakos (Charlie) Kourakos, owner of Mezzo Mezzo restaurant on Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria, Queens, spent long hours watching television reports as the flames ravaged Mount Taygetos, near Sparta, in the province where he grew up.”I used to vacation there when I was growing up, and I still take my family there,” said Kourakos. “It is such beautiful country, full of birch and pine trees. So beautiful.”Peter Alexeas, president of Progressive Designs, a Hempstead, L.I., firm that designs and builds diners, was vacationing in the region when the flames hit. He joined the fire brigade as locals tried to help overwhelmed firefighters in the battle.”There were only two fire trucks,” Alexeas said.
“I think we did more than the firemen did. I burned my hand, the fire was so close.” Now the two have joined with consultant Nancy Biska and the World Council of Hellenes Abroad in a national effort to replant Mount Taygetos and other parts of their homeland. The World Council is looking to raise more than $500,000 for the “Plant Your Roots In Greece” tree-replanting program. Biska said all the money raised will go directly toward the replanting effort. “Every dime that is donated will go into replacing lost trees,” she said. The Greek government has pledged to rebuild the destroyed homes.
By Nancy Biska, ΚΡΗΤΗ Magazine
“Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food” — Hippocrates
Homer called olive oil the “liquid gold”. Nothing is more characteristic of Crete than the millions of olive trees that grow in valleys and mountainous areas. According to archaeological findings, Cretans have been cultivating the olive tree and have been using olive oil since 3500 B.C. during the early Minoan period.
In ancient Greece the olive tree has been the symbol of wisdom and peace. It was the sacred tree of goddess Athena and Athens, the capital of Greece. Also, at the Ancient Olympic Games, winners were presented with a simple olive tree branch which was cut with a gold-handled knife from a wild olive tree. The Greeks believed that the vitality of the sacred tree was transmitted to the recipient through the branch.
