Czech/Slovak groups abroad

Do you keep coming across these Czech and Slovak organizations but have no clue what they do or what are they like? Well, I am officially creating a new series of interviews where we are going to meet their true faces. My first catch is the Czech and Slovak Association in Boston. The founders are these 3 very nice ladies – Estera Mlch, Renata Dutton, and Maria Grantham (see the picture above) -  who have always been so nice to me so they get to be historically the first ones to be interviewed:

1/ Hi Renata, can you introduce your organization a bit? How did it come around and whose idea was it?

This year we celebrated the 5th anniversary of our organization and we are so very proud of it. For me the whole idea probably started  when I was home with my one-year-old daughter and I needed some intellectual fulfillment in my life besides the regular mom stuff.  I also missed other Czechs and Slovaks and that’s why my Slovak girlfriends Marika and Ester and I put our brains together and realized the unfortunate fact: Boston lacked information on Czech and Slovak happenings in America. We do have the Masaryk Club but this organization concentrates on other things. That is why we created our website and registered our organization. At first we started advertising events made by other organizations and later held our own events. I have to say, we have gotten quite far – getting the recognition from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Czech Embassy and other organizations. [click to continue…]