Fraternity-Testvériség, 2005 (83. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2005-01-01 / 1. szám
Page 8 Fraternity- Testvériség Peggy Fabri with Christmas boxes sells it for her branch’s benefit. Emma Aros of Lorain, Ohio who has made cabbage rolls for so many years that no function there is complete without her contribution. Sara Nagy of Frankenmuth, Ml who shops for clothes for needy children in her community. Peggy Fabri of Beaver Falls, PA who has helped make her husband the Federation’s top seller because she travels with him to clients’ homes, counsels troubled youth, is active in her church’s missions, and has raised money to help needy youth attend college. Priscilla Flunyady, of Colonia, NJ, the new president of the New Jersey Fraternal Congress, who served on its executive board for seven years, was the former Chairman of the Board and Vice-Chair of the Hungarian Reformed Federation after serving on its board since 1985, is director of the Hungarian Reformed Church Youth Camp, and organizes the Protestant Ball in New Jersey to raise money for scholarship awards so that many students can attend college. Maria Kovács of Crown Point, Ind. who cooks Újházi Chicken Soup and Göngyölt Hús (meat rolls) in massive quantities for Federation and church events. She has won numerous cooking awards, was featured in the Food column of the Chicago Chef Maria Kovács at Crown Times, raises her son with Point the help of her husband Joe, an HRFA Board Member, and works fulltime in East Chicago. • Rose Gerzsenyi of North Huntingdon, PA who keeps her collection of Hungarian dresses in pristine condition to show on mannequins at branch meetings. She has organized the yearly picnic at Kennywood Park outside Pittsburgh since 1959. The funds she raises support the Hungarian Ethnic Dance Group of Western PA. She brings back Hungarian beauty pageant winners from as long ago as 1939 for the picnic crowds to admire as she herself was Mrs. Magyar of Western Pennsylvania in 1986. Granted, many of these women have reached retirement age and have achieved a certain wisdom and integrity that others find supportive, stabilizing, and helpful. For some, it is a chance to wind down from regular jobs and the demands of family life and become more active in their fraternal’s social lives. Commitment and satisfaction are interwoven in their fraternal activities. Their own successful aging has redefined their social roles, interpersonal obligations, and personal responsibilities. They are most likely withdrawing from paid work, and their “mothering” responsibilities are less now that their children are grown and have moved away. These events now afford them opportunities for increased reflection, offer them less structured time frames, and bring about a decreased emotional investment in their professional careers. Women like Marge Nicholas and Peggy Fabri who worked in retail sales, Priscilla Hunyady who was a bank examiner, Erika Mason who served in the U.S Air Force, Ilona Toth who served as a bank teller before obtaining her realtor’s license, Helen Skerl Fogarassy who was a teacher, Sara Nagy who ran a Florida nursing home, and Rose Gerzsenyi who for fifteen years was a cashier at a local grocery store can attest to such changes in their lives. As these women gradually withdrew from paid work, their relationships changed because there was decreased social interaction with co-workers. Unlike males whose interest in and capacity for work increases at midlife, women who have been continually serving others are ready to engage in new projects Rose Gerzsenyi as “Mrs. and in different types of Magyai relationships, generally moving outside family into the realm of serving in more committed ways organizations they care about. Sociologist Gail Sheehy’s work in 1974 and 1981 determined that during women’s late forties and fifties, their personal interests receive more attention and a mellowing and increasing investment in personal relationships becomes more obvious. Consequently, fraternals benefit from these women’s changing focus. But what keeps these women so committed to fraternal activities year after year? Granted, they enjoy the social interaction, and most have had long connections with their organization. Priscilla Hunyady and Deneice Oroszvary credit their late parents for their commitment and their example in instilling the principals that have guided their service. Deneice also wanted to be an example of service for her own six children, and she recently garnered a youth community service award from
