Opening remarks by Bob Hopkins

Dedication of the Slovenian Museum & Archive Center July 30, 2009

Welcome. 

At this time, I would like to ask Father John Kumse to do an invocation.

My name is Bob Hopkins and I am proud to be standing in front of you in the new Slovenian Museum and Archives.  I would like to welcome several dignitaries: George Brown, from Senator Voinovich’s Office; Dr. Zvone Zigon, Consul General from the Republic of Slovenia; Igritta Bublis, Honorary Consul of Lithuania; State Representative Kenny Yuko; Honorable Judge Ron Sustar; Greg Sadlek, Dean of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from Cleveland State University.  (Also, Councilman Joe Cimperman, who came in later and presented a short speech).

Anytime in life that you go from an idea through completion is cool!  We witness this everyday in manufacturing; in art; in school; and in our professions.

To get there, you need an “idea person.”  This idea person not only has to come through with the idea, but needs to help follow it through.  A couple of years ago, a few of us sat down to start kicking around ideas.  Our main idea person was the Consul General from the Republic of Slovenia – Dr. Zvone Zigon.  Without his initial push and following the project all the way through – this would not have become a reality…

We then had to put together a team that believed in the project and put their “Heart and Soul” in it.  This involved countless hours of volunteering and late night meetings.  I would certainly like to thank all the Board Members that have been a part of this journey.  Also, I would like to thank August Pust, who stepped down from the Board recently but was a great help to our Board.  The next step was developing by-laws, a business plan as well as to start looking for donations.  I would especially like to thank Linda Silakoski, Olga Merela, John Kirn and Ray Marvar for helping with the by-laws; also, Gary Miller for putting together the Business Plan.

We were extremely fortunate in securing a 60,000 Euros grant from the Republic of Slovenia; a $60,000 grant from the Richmond Brothers Foundation; $25,000 grant from the City of Cleveland with the assistance of Council Member Joe Cimperman; $25,000 from Bob and Gerri Hopkins and $20,000 from our private and corporate founding members, for a grand total of $206,000 to date!  I would like to personally thank Dr. Zigon, Ray Novak and Joe Cimperman respectively for being instrumental in securing these grants.

I would also like to thank the countless other donors which included lodges, corporations and individuals of which 56 Founding Members were secured.

I would also like to thank Councilman Cimperman and Councilman Polensek for their involvement in the project.

The next supportive development was a joint collaboration of an administrator through the Center for Slovenian Studies at Cleveland State University.  Another program initiated by the Consul General and the Government of Slovenia, this program’s goal was the promotion of the Slovenian Language and culture throughout the Slovenian Community.

We have been very fortunate to have the Center for Slovenian Studies’ Program Liaison, Ivanka Yuko spending half of her time with the Slovenian Museum and Archives and the other half with Cleveland State University.

We are happy to say that the Slovenian Genealogy Society has also partnered with the SMA and have their office located in this new facility.  At this time, I would like to introduce the President of the Slovenian Genealogy Society, Rose Marie Jisa to say a few words…..

I would also like to introduce Tony Hiti, the President of the Slovenian American Heritage Foundation to say a few words……

We are continuing to look to partner with several other organizations which include the Slovenska Citalnica (or Slovenian Library) and hope to have arrangements in place with them as well.

Another major partner has been the Slovenian National Home and certainly the Friends of the Slovenian National Home, which has let us, use their 501c3 status until the museum secures its own 501c3 number.  Both understand that the success of all of our organizations depend on us working together and continuing to invest in our future so that this will be sustained for many future generations.

Certainly, I would like to thank Tony Hiti for all of his architectural work to date and Franci Sever for his HVAC expertise.  I would also like to thank Three Z Construction and Tom Znidarsic for the construction work that they did – completing the project in 3 weeks!

I would also like to thank Olga Merela for her expertise and professionalism of displaying artwork, refinishing artwork and countless hours of volunteer man hours from her company to make sure we always have very professional and appealing exhibits.

I would also like to thank, once again, Dr. Zigon for securing all of these exhibits that we have displayed over the last two years.

At this time, I would like to introduce Olga Merela, who will briefly describe today’s exhibit.  Olga…

Next, I would like to introduce Linda Silakoski, who will talk about our mission statement and also discuss donating to our physical collection.  Linda….

We certainly want to thank Dr. Zigon for arranging to have this exhibit here.  We thank all of you for your continued support and encourage you to encourage others to donate physical items to the museum and continue to donate financially to the Slovenian Museum and Archives.

To perpetuate the wonderful legacy that Dr. Zigon has started, we thought there was no better way to thank him and to remember his friendship than to name one of the rooms in the new welcome center in his honor.  So, at this time, please give a big hand to Dr. Zvone Zigon for the new Zigon Welcome Center!  Furthermore, as a token of our appreciation, we would like to present to Zvone and his wife Irena this beautiful and original water color titled, “Farewell Carnations” that was painted by the renowned painter, Gary Bukovnik. It was commissioned as a special gift to Zvone and his wife Irena in gratitude and warm wishes for a wonderful future!!

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