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IrESINiK SPJST Herald
Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas, Founded 1897 BROTHERHOOD
HUMANITY
BENEVOLENCE
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P. 0. Box 100, Temple, Texas 76503 ISSN-07458800 VOLUME 83 NUMBER 20
May 17, 1995
Society mourns loss of past District Director Henry Vitek
Congratulations to Our 1995 SPJST Scholarship Recipients
Brother Henry Vitek, who served as SPJST District Two Director from 1961 to 1984, died Friday, May 12, 1995 in a Taylor Hospital. He was 81. A lifelong resident and farmer Henry Vitek in the Granger area, Brother Vitek was the son of August and Tracy Stefka Vitek. His grandfather and grandmother, Frank and Terezie Stefka, were charter members of the SPJST. He married the former Angeline Stiba on June 11, 1946. Brother Vitek held several positions within District Two and Lodge 20, Granger. He was elected District Two Director at the 1960 SPJST Convention in San Antonio. During, his 24 years as director, total Society assets tripled, increasing from $11 million in 1961 to more than $37 million in 1984.
A total of ninety-one $500 scholarships were awarded by the SPJST in 1995. Since the SPJST Scholarship Program began in 1983, a total of 742 scholarships, not including youth merit or royalty scholarships, have been presented by the Society. Scholarships are funded by contributions and memorials from SPJST members, lodges, and through an annual allocation by the SPJST Supreme Lodge. Photographs of 1995 Freshman Scholarship recipients begin on page 10.
In addition to his service to the SPJST, Brother Vitek also served for 19 years as a trustee for the Granger Independent School District and as Democratic election judge in Granger for many years. Brother Vitek was also a veteran of World War II, having served in the U.S. Air Force and attaining the rank of Master Sergeant. He was a member of the American Legion and VFW Post No. 282. Brother Vitek is survived by his wife, Angeline; daughters Laura Bohac and husband, Alvin, of Cedar Park and June Kubala and husband, Sam, of Taylor; and four grandchildren: Karen and Michelle Bohac and Jonathan and Jennifer Kubala. He is also survived by two sisters, Helen Volney of Bartlett and Alice Langenegger of Georgetown and one brother, Alfred Vitek of Granger. Heartfelt condolences are extended to Brother Vitek's family and friends. Funeral services for Brother Vitek were Monday, May 15 at the Granger Brethren Church with Rev. Albert Michalik presiding.
"Polka Pork" premieres on the West Coast
A Little Bit of Wes By Joanie Barton
It's true what they say. Things from your childhood pop back into your mind. You remember who you are and what you are made of by remembering your roots; maybe even re-living a little bit of your childhood. That happened to me when I volunteered for a function called "Real Women Cook." The function's purpose was to raise money for breast cancer. Cancer hit home a few years ago when it robbed my brother Raymond of his life. So the purpose of the function was something close to my heart.
(Editor's Note: Joanie is a member of Lodge 54, West. She is a 1970 honor graduate of West High School and a 1973 fall semester graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. She has been living in the Los Angeles area since July, 1974 but she says she is a Texan at heart. The following story is reprinted with permission of the West News.)
est in Los Angeles
When my friend, Beca Lewis Allen, who works for Dean Witter in Los Angeles, asked me to participate, I did so because it was to raise money to fight breast cancer. When she told me I'd have to cook something I said, "I really don't cook." I mean we're talking about this function having judges! Yikes. Of course she challenged me. "Surely you can cook at least one dish?" she asked. Needless to say I agreed to volunteer. Three hundred women would be participating. One group of over ten working women met for the first time to determine what our theme would be. Each group of women would have its own "avenue". Not only would each of us be cooking a dish but we'd have to dress up in costumes and have props to support whatever theme we chose. Geez. A Hollywood production! What did I get myself into? Our group was made up of all sorts of different ethnic backgrounds; a very typical Los Angeleno group: Chinese, African, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, Jewish, American Indian (Apache), German, Armenian, Indonesian, Cajun French, and, of course, Czech—me! So, with that, Beca dreamed up the theme,
"Divercity." We would each cook a dish and dress in costumes that represented the ethnic background we were from. We planned to meet again in three weeks at Beca's house for Sunday brunch and each one of us would bring the dish we wanted to cook for the actual event. Sort of a dry run. OK. So what was I going to make? I can't make kolaches—I've never even tried. Ditto klobosniki. Actually I thought about cooking a sausage dish with sauerkraut but that was out since the only way I'd cook a sausage dish that was supposed to be Czech would have to be made with Nemecek's sausage in it. And since Nemecek's is roughly 1,300 miles away that would have made one heckuva trip to the grocery store! So what was I going to make? How would I figure that out? Call mom, of course. I had seen the
West Heritage Cookbook on many trips to West and meant to get it but never did. I needed it now! So my mother, Henrietta Barton, rescued me. No matter what age you are you can always rely on your mom! So I got the cookbook and settled on a recipe submitted by Agnes Dolezal: "Pork and Sauerkraut". I had to come up with a catchy name that captured the Czech background so I named my version, "Polka Pork". Next were the costumes, I went rental costume shopping in Burbank where I live and North Hollywood. The closest thing I came to a Czech outfit was Polish or German. I just couldn't bring myself to wear something that wasn't really Czech. It was against my blood. So what was I going to do?
"You remember who you are and what you are made of by remembering your roots."
(Continued on page 4.)