The Tsintzinian Chronicle
April 2025 Newsletter for the Tsintzina Society
Wishing our Tsintzinian Family a Joyous Easter Season!
President’s Report
from Peter Sfikas
My fellow Tsintzinians,
Our much-anticipated reunion is fast approaching, and your board and membership committee are working hard to ensure it’s an event to remember. While it may be tough to top last year’s reunion, we’re determined to give it our best effort. Mark your calendars for July 24-27 – you won’t want to miss it. Whether you attend every year, haven’t been in a few, or it’s been over 20 years since you last joined us, this is the perfect time to celebrate our shared Tsintzinian heritage.
We have an exciting lineup of events planned, including some new activities we’re sure you’ll enjoy. Many of you generously support us through dues, donations, and raffle contributions, and we sincerely appreciate all of it. However, the most important way we can all contribute as Tsintzinians is by attending the reunion.
If you haven’t paid your dues yet, please do so as soon as possible. You can quickly complete the process at TsintzinaSociety.com. Thanks to PJ Karousis, our website has been updated to make it easier than ever to pay dues, make donations, view the reunion schedule, and register for the event. Keep an eye out for updates on the necrology and photo albums coming soon.
We’d also like to congratulate the winners of our annual Christmas Raffle:
1st Prize: Thalia Johanssen
2nd Prize: Sam Zacharias
3rd Prize: Leon & Robyn Andris
A special thank you to Sam and the Andrises for generously donating their raffle winnings back to the society.
Finally, congratulations to Alexandra Slezak who was unanimously approved by the officers of the board to fill a vacancy on the board, bringing our total number back up to the minimum of 11.
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone in Jamestown this July!
Warm regards, Peter
Submitted by Peter Sfikas, President, psfikas@aol.com
Treasurer’s Report
from Duane Ferencz
Submitted by Duane Ferencz, Treasurer, dgferencz@gmail.com
Membership Report
from Kiki Georgiou
By paying your 2025 dues and becoming an active member of the Tsintzina Society, you are pledging patronage to the oldest Greek-American cultural heritage society in the United States, founded in 1892. That’s 133 years!!! This is a society with an ongoing presence centered around celebrating Greek roots and sharing the ways in which we are Greek in our modern world, assimilating as proud Americans while still representing our cumulative history and rich cultural traditions whether by dancing, cooking Yiayia’s recipes, sharing meals together, following the values of Eastern Orthodoxy, or networking with our fellow Greek-Americans (whether blood born or honorary/adopted) as our forefathers did to create stronger community ties and opportunities.
Tsintzina Society Membership: 38 members have paid their 2024-25 dues:
Individual Amber Boyce, Christine N. Costianes, Kat Costianes, Nancy Dusckas, Louise (Economakis) Gibb, Athena (Kostul) Moraitis, Peter Stratakos, Joan (Chelekis) Tolla, Petros Voutsanesis (new 2025 member)
Family Damian Allis, Matoula (Chelekis) Avdul, Raquel & Jonathan Callans, Marcus Chacona, Eliot Costianis, Anna & Michael Georgetson, Philip & Jodi (Dusckas) Kalantgis, Dean & Tina (Lascaris) Karlaftis, Jeff & Elaine Kreil, Nick & Maia Laskaris, Eldon & Mary (Gaylord) Mack, Mary Ann (Nickles) Scott
Benefactor Leon & Robyn Andris, Kathryn (Chelekis) Brown, Alex Burlotos, Stephan G. Cannellos, Louis & Vicki Chelekis, Connie Dusckas, Richard Forrest (new 2025 member), John & Kiki (Lascaris) Georgiou, Thalia Nickles Johanssen, Dean Koumontzis, Peter & Ann Macheras, George & Laura Papageorge, John G. Stratakos, Joan Zacharias, Socrates Zacharias, Kay Zaharis, Kaleroy Zervos
Donations to the Endowment Fund Leon & Robyn Andris, Matoula (Chelekis) Avdul, Kathryn (Chelekis) Brown, Alex Burlotos, Stephan G. Cannellos, Nancy Dusckas, Dean Koumontzis, Peter & Ann Macheras, George & Laura Papageorge, Peter Sfikas, Peter Stratakos, Joan (Chelekis) Tolla
2025 Annual Convention July 24-27
from Kiki Georgiou
It’s never too early to begin planning your visit to Jamestown for the annual Tsintzina Society Reunion/Convention. This year's theme is “Finding Your Roots." There will be dance lessons, some language lessons, and a short talk on how to look up and work on your genealogy. Are you the historian in your family?
To register, go to the Society’s website - Annual Convention — Tsintzina Society — to pay registration fees. If you need to pay your dues, you will need to make a separate transaction.
Ride Share: Are you thinking of going to Jamestown but don't have a ride? Are you planning on going to Jamestown and would like company or have an extra seat or two in your car? If yes, then send an email to me at kcgscribe@aol.com and let me know whether you need a ride or have room in your car for extra passengers. Please include your name, email address and home address, city of origin/pickup, number of people needing a ride/number of seats available in your car, and/or itinerary. We'll be excited to see y'all at the Tsintzina Reunion/Convention.
Project Road Trip: How many of you are driving to Jamestown for the 2025 Tsintzina Reunion/Convention? My husband, John, and I are driving from Houston to Jamestown starting around July 16. We hope to visit the presidential libraries of George W. Bush and Harry S. Truman. How about you? Any plans for sightseeing or visiting relatives along the way to Jamestown? Please share your plans in the comments below! You can also post pictures and/or note your itinerary/experiences of your trip to Jamestown on the Tsintzina Society Facebook page.
We had a great time last year and look forward to seeing you and your cousins and friends this year.
Submitted by Kiki Georgiou, Membership Chair, kcgscribe@aol.com
Convention Schedule: All Activities are at the Clubhouse
Heritage
from Kat Costianes
The definition of this word is: something that is handed down from the past, as a tradition.
What does this word mean to you? Is it a childhood memory of family gatherings? A recipe passed down from Yiayia? A family tradition you share with your children? In my family, it’s all of the above. As the youngest member of 26 first cousins, half of whom are gone, some that are still here (yet I’ve never met them due to locational proximity), I feel a sense of family, belonging, and connectedness. THIS IS THE IDEA BEHIND OUR CONVENTION! What began as a Businessman’s Convention, grew with the addition of a Ladies’ Auxiliary and then became a “Reunion” of distant cousins who all share the same ancestral beginnings from Tsintzina, Goritsa, & Zoupena. As our clubhouse became the site for many other Greek village reunions, the attendance was grand in hopes of eligible maidens and bachelors meeting in order to get married and make the next generation of Greeks, or in our case, Tsintzinians.
But let’s come back to today. Once the thriving epicenter of a 5-state region where our ancestors settled, Jamestown was the place where families would gather for their vacation and catch up on the happenings of the past year. Today, we have social media where we can catch up daily. We are able to travel to more exciting vacation spots! I’ve talked to various families who are busy with jobs and school sports and are unable to come on our scheduled weekend. But the real question is: why isn’t the Tsintzina Reunion a priority in your life?
One of the by-laws discusses that although we speak Greek in our homes and vow to continue to keep our Tsintzinian heritage alive through our Greek Orthodoxy and family traditions, we must assimilate within the communities in which we live. WELL! We’ve certainly done that! We’ve assimilated so much that I wonder: how many of us speak Greek in our homes? How many of us teach our children something of our family heritage, be it a simple holiday tradition or recipe or a word of advice from an older and wiser aunt or uncle? Do you share stories with your children of coming to Jamestown when you were young, and if so…what made it so exciting? Why did you stop coming? Chances are these things died when Yiayia passed. Would she want you to pass along the joyful times she shared with you — or bury it with your fond memories of good times from the past?
My children missed one year of Jamestown growing up because they had misbehaved so badly, despite their father and I warning them they’d miss the following year if their behavior didn’t make a drastic change. Well, they continued and we adults missed out on our fun, so the next year we came without the kids. I must admit in hindsight, it was a huge mistake and they won’t let us forget it! My point of this story is to say that your kids are missing out on the rich traditions you enjoyed! Your senior parents have told me they’d like to come but are afraid they won’t know anybody there. BUT…if every adult child would support their parents by coming (along with their children), it would be like old times with a new modern twist.
This year, we will be having a drone tour of Tsintzina as if you, personally, are walking through the village. Leon Andris has graciously accepted my request to have a “live” chat from the horio and some of our American Tsintziniotes who summer in the village may join in as well. All of this will take place while you enjoy a delicious authentic Greek breakfast in Poulos Hall on Saturday morning. Also, Pauline Costianes will give a brief genealogy presentation and we will be needing your help as we introduce something new this year! (Please see the attached article by Pauline filled with good tips for researching your family trees.) As many people have an interest in Ancestry.com and 23andMe and other DNA sites, we are planning an interactive Family Tree Storyboard in the clubhouse. This storyboard is about your immediate family and how we might all be connected; you may discover a new distant cousin or find that someone you already know is a close relative! Please bring any family photos that could be attached (and returned). Everything else to “trace” your family roots will be provided. Each “branch” or family carries a place in our future and shows how intertwined our families are!
Our Tsintzinian “family” is more than just a name — we are a LEGACY of love, laughter, and shared history. Each of us holds a piece of that story and without you, our reunion isn’t complete. Let’s come together, not just for ourselves, but for the generations before us who built this foundation and for those who will come after us. YOUR PRESENCE MATTERS!!! Let’s honor the Legacy of Tsintzina and our forefathers and continue writing the next chapter of our Extended Tsintzinian Family!
Submitted by Kat Costianes, spartankoukla@gmail.com
