Dear Minnesota Croatian Friends,
I hope that everyone is healthy and safe and is getting out a little bit more in Minnesota now that the restrictions have been lifted for restaurants and businesses. Even while we are restricted in our current activities, we are working on some fun things next year such as holding a Croatian Soccer Night with the Minneapolis Soccer league against a Croatian American team from Milwaukee. This could be a fun family event for our community.
Here is an update on some of the fundraising initiatives that was in our last newsletter.
1. CFU – Croatian Fraternal Union. They surpassed their goal and all funds were directed to the Croatian Red Cross. They raised close to $20,000.
2. NFCACF – National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation asked for donations for the Zagreb Museum of Arts and Crafts which received extensive damage. They were able to raise over $20,000 to help with the restoration of the museum. Marko Kirn met with them this past week to take a tour of the damages. It will take up to $18 million dollars for a complete restoration.
3. ACAP – Association of Croatian American Professionals. Supporting KB Dubrava (a hospital in Zagreb) and KBC (a hospital in Split) asking for funding for Medical equipment and supplies – they were able to raise almost $45,000.
The Croatian Cultural Society of Minnesota had a very busy year planned for our community and so many things had to be cancelled such as the Timberwolves game, the Festival of Nations, our language classes, and our first ever Paint Night. But the Croatian Hall is opened again and they need our support. The Dubrovnik Paint Night has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 1st at 6:00 pm at the Croatian Hall.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival went virtual this year instead of being postponed. Hopefully, some of you were able to enjoy viewing some of the Croatian films.
The Slavic Experience 2020 has been postponed until August 7th and 8th, 2021. It would be wonderful if the Minnesota Croatian community will participate in it. If anyone would like to champion this event, please contact me. For more information, please check their link to Facebook for this event or their website https://slavicexperience.com/.
Abbey McDonald from Hibbing, MN was our intern this past spring. Abbey had been busy working on our list of Noteworthy Minnesota Croats and finding their pictures. You can see the entire list here. It seems to be a list of mostly politicians and hockey players! Please feel free to send us any names that we missed.
Abbey also interviewed her father, Joel McDonald, who was named Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball in 1991 and scored over 3,000 points during his prep career. Abbey’s grandfather, Bob McDonald was the winningest high school basketball coach in Minnesota. Abbey herself scored over 2,000 points during her career – a true basketball family. You can read the interview in our newsletter. A big thanks to Abbey for all her help to our organization this year.
As we get closer to December, we will make a decision whether or not to hold our annual Christmas Party depending on the the outcome of the virus. The date is currently reserved for Saturday December 5th and we may only be allowed to have a smaller group attend.
My best to all – stay healthy!
Andrea Novak Neumann
Croatian Cultural Society of Minnesota 