Following Michael Myckatyn around the Ukrainian Catholic Centre is like chasing a tornado, albeit one dressed in dark slacks and a white polo shirt which he said takes some effort not to stain when slurping borsch.
It’s the last Saturday of November which means the centre is packed for one of the church’s biggest fundraisers of the year, the decades-old Ukrainian Food Fair and Bazaar run by St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Parish.
The gymnasium-sized room is filled with tables of cellophane-wrapped gift baskets to be raffled, hand-made aprons and tea cozies for sale, a “Religious Table” for the books, and enough perogies, cabbage rolls and sausage circles to fit into a moving truck.
Myckatyn stopped by the bar window to say hello to Bill Smigel, who was taking advantage of a quick break. “Bill’s a lonely man, nobody’s buying liquor,” ribbed Myckatyn.
“It’s the three o’clock lull,” answered Smigel. “It’s been busy, not wild.” “Yes,” said Myckatyn, “We’re too old to be wild.”
In the opposite end of the room was Joe Busko, who has attended about 50 bazaars since arriving in Vancouver from Ontario as a 21-year-old man Jan. 3, 1952.
“Back then it was a lot different,” said Busko, who makes it a steadfast rule never to smile in photographs.
“We used to have Blackjack and, well, I don’t want to call it gambling but… now the big factor for people is the food. If you look at the posters you see ‘Ukrainian Food’ in big letters and below, in small print, ‘Bazaar’.”
While people lined up from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. to fill their plates (and their freezers with the frozen foods for sale), the bazaar is also a big part of the fundraising.
Combined they help various charities, including Aunt Leah’s Place as well as Bridge of Hope, which gives support to underprivileged children in Ukraine. There was no admission fee to the bazaar, in keeping with the spirit of Ukrainian hospitality.
“One of the first things I did when I came here was come to St. Mary’s. Instantly, I have family!” said Theresa McNicholl, who arrived at the parish from the Prairies in 1981 and has spent two months of almost every year since making perogies and cabbage rolls for the bazaar.
“It’s an unconditional welcome. How comforting is that?”
“Ukrainians are very welcoming by nature,” added Myckatyn, listing off the origins of some people in the room (his own origins include marrying Olesia in the Centre 42 years ago, which used to be the church before the new one was built next door).
“And there’s Courtney. The young Irish man you saw at the door? Courtenay has adopted us! He sings in our choir, doesn’t know a word of Ukrainian but he has a very nice tenor. It’s amazing, actually.”
Courtenay Hughes arrived in Vancouver from Dublin three years ago and happened to be walking by the church one day when music caught his ear.
He took his visiting mother to listen to the choir and joined after having a coffee afterward. Saturday he was stationed at the front door of the centre and offered to carry an umbrella for people walking to their cars in the afternoon’s downpour.
Leaning up beside the front door was a poster depicting a cartoon of happy farmers declaring: “It’s fun being Ukrainian!!!”
Myckatyn explained: “We love food, we love singing, we love dancing. We’re responsible, we’re family people, we’re religious people. Do you think that sums it up?” he asked McNicholl who was on a break from working as the day’s cashier, server, and silent auction table.
“Yes,” she agreed. “It’s like that movie — live, love, laugh, pray.”
