Magyar Cserkész, 1973 (24. évfolyam, 1-8. szám)

1973-03-01 / 3-4. szám

BUFFALO COURIER-EXPRESS, Sunday, September 3,1972

11 \ Y Camp Help Hungarian Scout

s Keep Alive Movement

By GRACE GODDARD

VISITORS THIS summer to a parklike area around Fillmore and Nunda, near Letchvvorth Park, might have judged the lovely countryside to be touched with magic as strains of Magyar music filtered through the pines.

They might well have expected a gypsy caravan to appear. Or they might have imagined the brown flood-flushed waters of the Genesee River to be the famed Blue Danube flowing past Budapest, capital of Hungary.

IN REALITY the music was just part of the program at the Sik Sándor Hungarian Scout Camp, an international training center for what remains of Hungary’s once great scout movement. Hungary was one of nine founding members of the international Boy Scout organization originated by Lord Baden- Powell in his native England.

Scouting has been outlawed by the Communists in Hungary. It survives among Hungarian refugees, though, and the Western New York camp has become a Mecca for Hungarian scouting leaders from many nations.

Both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, under the general name of Hungarian Scouts, are trained at this 106-acre retreat which was acquired eight years ago by Hungarian Scouts Assn, in Exile, now known simply as Hungarian Scouts Assn.

THIS SUMMER,. 244 scouts and leaders have been trained at the camp which was established by the Rev. Dr. Stephen Gerencsér, headmaster of the Calasanctius School in Buffalo; the Rev. Louis Kovari of the same school; Gabor Bodnar of Garfield, N.J., chief scout of the Hungarian Scouts Assn., and Dr. George Nemethy of New York, the camp’s educational director.

Dr. Nemethy, a Protestant, recently received a Papal Award for his research in biochemistry at Rockefeller University in New York.

Mr. Bodnar served as a camp director this summer. Head of a construction company, he’s the father of eight children who attend the camp.

THE HUNGARIAN Scouts have published 83 textbooks and handbooks in the Magyar language.

aom-The camp’s program stresses Hungarian history along with the native crafts, dances and music of Hungary. The Hungarian flag, when flown alongside Old Glory, has a hole cut out of the center. The hole represents the spot where the Communist hammer-and-sickle insignia was imprinted on the flag after Hungary was taken over by the Communists.

HUNGARY WAS host for the world-wide Boy Scout Jamboree in 1933. Between the two World Wars, the scouting movement became increasingly popular in rural as well as city areas of Hungary.

The deeorum and ecological respect of city boys and girls camping in the countryside impressed the rural folk. The latter’s sons and daughters brought to Hungarian scouting the beautiful embroideries and wood carvings, picturesque dances and hauntingly beautiful songs of the Hungarian plains and mountains. These treasures are now being shared in other lands by children whose parents or grandparents claim Hungary as their homeland.

EVERYBODY recognizes that a “good scout” in any country is a self-sacrificing, interestedin-others individual. But the devotion of this camp’s personnel is truly outstanding. Dr. Janos Hoyos, for instance, is a busy New York City physician who spends his vacation serving as camp doctor.

The Rev. Miss Ilona Kellner of Stockholm, Sweden, is a Lutheran minister who is on the camp teaching staff. She conducts Protestant religious services as does the Rev. Imre Bertalan, pastor of the New Brunswick, N.J. Calvinist (Magyar Presbyterian) Church.

The Rev. John Adam of Fordham University in New York, who is provincial of Hungarian Jesuits — none of whom have been allowed to continue their vocation in Hungary — conducts Roman Catholic services as does Father Kovari, a bearded and jovial man who’s lovingly called “Uncle Oobool” by the younger children.

THE DEVOTION of camp

leaders and aides was certainly demonstrated this summer on the opening day of camp in July when Dr. György Varecska—an eminent Cleveland pathologist— arrived with a trailer filled with food that represented half of his annual donation to the camp.

The other half? That’s Dr. Varecska’s service as camp cook during his month’s vacation. Among his assistant cooks were Paul Toldalagi of Paris, France, and Bela Gorgenyi of Boston, Mass., both university students who are in training to head Hungarian Scout units near their homes.

Vacations? In this camp it seems that many choose to “vacation” by working. And nobody receives monetary recompense.

Some of the leaders at the camp helped broaden the experiences of the campers by sharing memories of Hungary before the Communists arrived and by recounting their internments in Communist prisons.

GYULA PAP, who teaches Russian at Calasanctius School, spent 13 years in a POW camp in Siberia. The Rev. George Kollei of Munich, Germany, regional leader of Hungarian Scouts Assn, in Europe, spent 10 years in a Russian concentration camp.

Another outstanding lecturer Is Karoly Rauch of Melbourne, Australia, a physical education teacher who heads Hungarian Scouting in Australia.

Inasmuch as fluency in languages is the rule rather than the exception among camp leaders, campers from Venezuela and Brazil this summer were assimilated with ease. Campers from Scandinavian countries were assisted with verbal translations by the Rev. Miss Kellner and by the Rev. Yanos Solymár of Stockholm, Sweden.

GIRLS, ESPECIALLY have excelled at crafts taught by Miss Kristo-Nagy and the Rev. Miss Kellner.

Tibor Baranski, husband of the camp secretary, also assists at the camp. He teaches American history at Cheektowaga Central High School. His wife is engaged in biochemistry research at the University of Buffalo.

“In all of our programs here, We stress gratitude to the United States, to Canada and to other countries where we former Hungarians have sought and found sanctuary,’* said Mr. Baranski.

“BUT VVE CHERISH this

chance to pass along both the high traditions of scouting in Hungary and the historical traditions of Hungary. It’s our heritage, and this is the only Way we can make sure that our children and succeeding generations know of it. And we’re sure that this proud heritage, in turn, will enrich those countries that have been só good to us.”