Santa Barbara AHEPA Chapter 243

April 2006 Newsletter
ORDER OF HEPA
SANTA BARBARA CHAPTER #243
“Promoting the Harmony of Greek Culture, service, and Community”
Est. 1929
“Keeping the Spirit Alive and in the Mix in 2006”
http://www.ahepa20/~chapter243/

As we travel during this Lenten season we examine our inner selves and seek renewal. So it is with your Ahepa Chapter. We are taking time to see who we are, what we have accomplished and reestablish our focus on our objectives and goals. Our mission statement is to promote Hellenism, Education, Philanthropy, Civic Responsibility, and family, and Individual Excellence.
This Chapter working together as a team has accomplished much in all these avenues of service.
We just had a very pleasant afternoon as a community learning about the Greek Ideal of spirit and mind.
Recently Dino Frangos acted on our behalf and introduced the new Greek Consul-General to our county supervisors, city council members, and various members of departments at UCSB. Accompanying him were members of our chapter. We discussed an idea put forth by Chris Compogiannis for a Sister-City relationship with a city in Greece which is similar to Santa Barbara which was enthusiastically received by the Mayor and the Consul-general. The Consul-General is contacting appropriate cities in Greece and will work with us to make a match.
The national Ahepa and the Greek Government is sponsoring a trip to Greece from July 20th to August 20th. The applicant must be 17 yrs old, in the last year of High School or up to the second year in college. All expenses are paid except for the air fare to and from Greece. The deadline for the submittal of the application is May 1st. Please contact any officers of Ahepa, and visit our web site for more information.
We have many more projects in the offing which would be a benefit to our community and Ahepa.
A big Thank You to George Papazacharoudakis and his team for a very nice Greek independence Day and Cultural event. This also includes their families without whose support things would be very difficult.
We are very fortunate to have the support of Fr. Paul who encourages our success.
Finally, our Thank You to all of you for your support. If you wish to join this very enthusiastic and goal orientated team just call the office for our phone numbers. We welcome you.
May this Lenten season be inspirational for everyone.
Sincerely
Jim Brown .

TV stations don't play the Olympic Anthem when athletes win medals, but they do blast it whenever the host network goes to commercial, comes back from commercial, or airs a commercial about their stellar Olympic coverage. Considering the piece of music gets so much airplay, you'd think the Web would offer all sorts of information on the composer. Alas, that's not really the case. The oft-played tune was written by a Greek composer named Spyros Samaras. Details on him are sparse, but this page from the 2004 Summer Games in Athens includes a few interesting tidbits. Samaras, already well-known for his operas, worked with Greek poet Costis Palamas on the anthem. As far as we can tell, Palamas wrote the words first and Samaras added the music later. Perhaps we shouldn't admit this, but we didn't even know there were lyrics. The anthem was first performed at the Summer Games in Athens in 1896. The reaction was positive. After all, it is an inspirational piece of music. In 1958, the International Olympic Committee named it the official anthem of the Olympics, and it's been played at every opening ceremony since 1964 (according to Wikipedia). As for how many commercials it's appeared in, who knows?