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Slovenian Catholic Center

Our Annual Koline Festival will be held on February 9, 2025 at the SCC.  Reservations are required by February 2, 2025.
​
Tickets are $40 for ages 19+, Students (7-18) are $15.
Reservations can be made in the following ways:


- Completing the reservation form found in the SCC foyer or the Q1 Newsletter and leaving the

completed form in the lock box at the SCC

- Calling 630-243-0670 and leaving a message with your reservation

- Emailing secretary@slovenian-center.org with your reservation

DO YOU HAVE SKILLS TO SHARE?      The SCC needs you!

Do you have some time?     ...skills?     ...know someone that might?

The Slovenian Catholic Center and Slovenian Catholic Mission are in need of volunteers:
To help maintain our beautiful grounds during the Spring and Summer seasons. 

If you are able to assist with any of the above jobs, please contact:
John Vidmar for landscaping and machine maintenance…  -or- Tony Vuksinic  anthony.vuksinic@gmail.com.
You may also leave a message at the Center at 630-243-0670 or send an email to secretary@slovenian-center.org

A Message from the SCC President...


I cannot believe how fast time is moving. We were just coming out of summer when our last newsletter came out and now, we are turning the corner on 2024 and entering 2025! Wow!f


The Center had a wonderful 4th Quarter celebrating the Center’s 29th anniversary with the theme for this year’s celebration being Skupnosti, which means, “Our Community”.This theme was a great reminder that we need to oster and grow our community and fellowship not only for this generation but also for the next and need to continue to look for opportunities to serve our community for many years to come.


We also were excited to introduce the Martin Hozjan Award of Distinction which honors a tribute to Martin designed to embody the very essence of what it means to serve our community.


It was wonderful to honor Dana Blase and Nandi Puc as our first recipients of this award and look forward recognizing many other members as we look to continue to recognize service to our community. Our next award recipients will be announced at Koline with the presentations at the Annual Appreciation Dinner in the spring. I cannot wait to hear who we will acknowledge next! I love these stories of service to our Slovenian community
and really enjoy recognizing our members and their families for their support.


​I mentioned in the last Newsletter that we wanted to hold a SCC Vision Session targeted at our young adult community. Well, we did and ended up having over 40 people participate in our first session over Thanksgiving weekend. (I found out offering free beer and kranjske klobase really does work!)


The engagement that we had was fantastic, with ideas ranged across many areas (the specifics below are just a few
examples):

  • Better Communications around events through social media and online tools (e.g. GroupMe, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook (Tis for old people!) and Sign-up Genie for volunteering
  • Planned Calendar of Events / recurring events for the year, include in an online schedule that can be linked (e.g., Google Calendar)
  • Activities / Class Ideas (e.g., Baking / Cooking Classes, Polka / Walz Classes, Open Gyms)
  • First Friday events at the Center (e.g., Karaoke, Trivia, Kraft Cocktail, Date Night)
  • Event Ideas (e.g., Ski Trip, Cubs Game, Slovenia / Triglav Trip)
  • Teams & SCC Sponsorship (e.g., Softball, Volleyball, Intramurals, etc.)
  • Dances (e.g., Vinska Trgatev/Wine Festival, New Years Eve, Maškarada)
  • Community outreach & activities with the town of Lemont
  • In additional to the above, there were a few themes that really resonated with me which included:
  • Building a stronger and more welcoming and comfortable environment at the Center.
  • Building stronger relationships through interactions. Look for ways to mix this group together (e.g., Have them sit together at events at the Center, everyone already knows their own families!) to build relationships with each other.
  • Wanting a place to just hang out and have fellowship. (I think that we focus on programming all our kids’ time and they just want to hang out and relax in a safe low-pressure place that is fun.)
  • We need ideas around getting kids involved at the Center that cannot attend sola due to conflicts (e.g., sports, arts, etc.). This causes kids to be on the outside looking in from a very young age.

I was really impressed by how thoughtful and genuine everyone was for the session. This group really cares about our Slovenian community and wants it to thrive and be a safe haven now and into the future for their families. This is very exciting!


I welcome everyone to come to our next Session on Friday, January 10th, at 6:30 PM and we will be focusing on prioritizing and planning around getting these ideas into action. Even if you are not a “Young Adult” please join us. It is great to hear what is important from our younger generation so that we can better align and plan to help make our Center a better place for our community.


A GroupMe Messaging App has already been setup coming out of the session so if you are a Young Adult and want to get connected with updates, please just scan the QR code below to get connected!


Thanks again for everyone that helped with the sessions and look forward to finishing 2024 strong and wish you all the absolute best in 2025!


Srecno novo leto!
Tony Vuksinic
SCC President
anthony.vuksinic@gmail.com

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

With the start of every New Year, our membership drive begins. We extend our sincere thanks to everyone that has supported the Center by being a member. Membership is our main source of income and helps maintain our facilities and support our activities. Please support the Center by becoming a member – fill out the form enclosed and return it to us with your payment. We also are looking for individuals to help with activities at the Center. If you’re interested in donating some time to the Slovenian Cultural Center please give us a call or come to our monthly meetings, every second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm.  Your donation of time is priceless to us!

Vaša pomoč v kulturnem centru je zelo cenjena!  Stem da plačate letno članarino in postanete aktiven član centra boste veliko pripomogli naši slovenski skupnosti.  V centru se zbiramo ob veselih in žalostnih trenutkih in si stisnemo roke, to je dom združenja, in prijatelstva.

​The Slovenian Catholic Mission and the Slovenian Center are open!!

​
Both 11am Mass at the Slovenian Catholic Mission and the Luncheon that follows are OPEN every Sunday unless posted otherwise.  
​Please come and worship with us and stay for a delicious home-cooked meal and visit with your friends!
      Lunch prices will be:        $12 per adult, $6 for kids 8 – 18 years of age, and kids 7 and under are free               
 
We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

​SLOVENIAN CATHOLIC CENTER
presents
KOLINE

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2025

CULTURAL

EDUCATIONAL

Welcome The Slovenian Catholic Center's purpose is to promote, encourage and foster in the context of the American society, the ideals of the Slovenian heritage and Christian religious and ethical values, providing and operating adequate facilities in support of the religious purposes of the Commissariat of the Holy Cross (CHC) and the Slovenian Catholic Mission (SCM) to carry on exclusively religious, educational, and charitable activities.
Dobrodošli Namen slovenskega katoliškega centra je spodbujanje, pospeševanje in spodbujanje v okviru ameriške družbe, idealov slovensko dediščino in krščanskih verskih in etičnih vrednot, zagotavljanje ustrezne zmogljivosti in delujejo v podporo verske namene Commissariat of Holy Cross (CHC) in Slovenski katoliški misiji (SCM), ki opravljajo samo verske, izobraževalne in dobrodelne dejavnosti.

RELIGIOUS