NEWS FROM THE NORTH

Enthusiasm is higher than the winter snowbanks here in Phillips, Wisconsin as plans are underway to celebrate its annual festival, June 20, 21, 22, 2008.  

 

Festival weekend opens Friday night at 7 p.m. with the Lidice Memorial Service at Phillips High School.  On a serious note before the festivities begin, the commemoration includes Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion participants.  Following the Lidice Service there will be music and fun and Meister's Beer Garden in downtown Phillips.

 

Doors open at Phillips High School and Phillips Middle School at 9:00 a.m. Saturday. Admission is a $2.00 button purchased at the door.  With SQUEEZE BOX JAMBOREE as the 2007 festival theme, the Phillips Czechoslovakian Community Festival Committee launches its 24th year!  An Artisans’ Corner is planned at the Middle School. Old world past- times demonstrated by able hands include spinning wool, weaving, and tatting, a way of life lost in the name of progress. A display of old farm tractors and other museum type relics from the past will be set up on the grounds. Tractor lovers won’t want to miss it! 

 

Artists, crafters and vendors will show their wares in the PHS gymnasium. Demonstrations and displays await the festival goers as well as an abundance of food, merriment and music.

   

This year we will again host the State Kolacky Home Baked Contest.  Information may be found on our web site: http://czech-slovak.tripod.com/  Vernette Moravek, wears more than one hat and promises much diversity in categories of kolacky or Kolace or Kolache, as Coordinator of the kolacky contest.     

A full day of activities planned for “Kids’ Korner” Saturday includes vest decorating, egg art, kolacky refrigerator magnets and a coloring contest. A poster contest in early spring is designed to encourage youth participation in the festival and emphasize a better understanding and appreciation of one’s heritage.   

Czech, Slovak, Polish, German, etc speaking folks will wear identification badges to invite others to converse in the “mother tongue” and other foreign speaking guests are invited to do the same!    

Joining in the festivities will be local musical favorites: The Czech-Us-Out-Combo, George Dums,  The Angelo Family Gospel Singers, and two performances by the Phillips Czechoslovakian Community Singers. 

 

Polka mass at the new St. Therese of Lesieux Catholic Church on Saturday evening and the Osacho Sisters from Minneapolis will lead the Ecumenical polka service on Sunday morning at St. John Lutheran Church.

 

Come and enjoy our Squeeze Box Jamboree on Saturday night at the Phillips High School.  We are expecting to get up to 24 different players playing for the honor of being considered the best Squeeze Box player in our region.  The Squeeze box is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand held bellows-driven free reed instruments such as the accordion and concertina.  The term is used because they are normally in the shape of a rectangular prism or box and the bellows is operated by squeezing. 

 

One thing that has not changed with the new year is the usual excellent ethnic cuisine! The menu still includes the delicate kolacky, soul warming rye bread, braided hoska, vdolky, cabbage rolls, and jaternice! Just when you think it can’t get any better, Sunday, the mouth watering pork ‘n sauerkraut dinner will be served! 

The Miss Czech Slovak Wisconsin State Queen Pageant Committee is busily preparing for their 9th annual pageant on Saturday.  Letters sent out to high schools and colleges in the state encourage the involvement of young women of Czech, Slovak, Moravian and Silesian lineage. Young women aged 16-26 interested in their heritage may go to the festival web site for more information. http://czech-slovak.tripod.com/  The winner at the state level proceeds to the national event in Wilber, Nebraska in August 2007 as a Wisconsin State representative.  Among national prizes is a trip to Slovakia or Czech Republic.

 

Current Queen and Princess, will be honored at the Queen’s Dinner Saturday at the Phillips Club 13. Always a memorable event, networking with other former royalty and little sisters precipitates continued interest in their heritage. The public is invited. Reservations may be made through the Phillips Area Chamber of Commerce, 1-888-408-4800.  ($10.00 for adults)

 

And there’s lots more to see in Phillips!! A visit to Price County Concrete Park is a must!  On the outskirts, one of 5 folk art treasures in the USA was discovered by a member of the Koehler Family many years ago.  Smitten by the work and knowing its value, it was purchased from the Schmidt family by the Koehler Foundation.  After renovation, it was turned over to the county to become a county park. Written up in many magazines and newspaper articles, the creator, “Pop” Schmidt has become a local legend. 

Beautiful Lake DuRoy beckons as one drives into town.  Facing the lake, in Bostrom Park, next to the Phillips Area Chamber of Commerce Office, an historical marker tells of the Phillips Fire and draws attention to the Indian burial ground on Squaw Island in the middle of Lake DuRoy. 

 

Sokol Park is home to the historical Lidice Monument and is worth a visit.  This web site has more information and tells the story of the village, its fate, and how it all ties in with the Lidice Memorial Service and festival celebration.     

 

We hope to see you in Phillips the third weekend of June!!

 

Phillips Czechoslovakian

The 25th annual

Community Festival Committee