ATHENS – On July 17, the feast day of St. Marina, Greek-American Ambassador of the United States to Greece George Tsunis visited Diplatanos in the Municipality of Thermo, Aitoloakarnania, following an invitation from the Diplatanos Society of America, to attend the event organized for the local holiday honoring St. Marina.

According to a related post on the Thermonews.gr website, the event was presented and coordinated by the president of the Society of Diplatanos, Vasilis Gournelos.

The ambassador was welcomed by the president of the Local Community of Diplatanos, Yiannis Kyritsis.

Thermo Mayor Spyros Konstantaras in his remarks welcomed the ambassador and all those present to the Local Community of the Municipality of Thermo.

Greetings were also shared by the deputy of the prefecture of Aitoloakarnania, Demetrios Konstantopoulos, and Thanasis Papathanasis, politician and president of pharmacists of the prefecture of Aitoloakarnania.

Also, Thanasis Antzoulis, uncle of the ambassador’s wife, Olga Antzoulis, who spoke with particularly touching words about their George, as they address Ambassador Tsunis.

The ambassador then took the floor and thanked everyone who was there, visibly moved by the event, noting that above all he is just a son of Platanos.

Afterwards, Metropolitan Ierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agios Vlasios, welcoming Tsunis, pointed out the importance of Tsunis’ role as the U.S. ambassador to Greece, due to his Greek roots.

Among those present were Piraeus Bank President George Hadjinicolaou, the commander of the Agrinio Traffic Police Alexios Antoniou, Thermo Deputy Mayors Athanasios Papapanos and Georgios Myzithras, and the president of the Thermo Community Alexandros Siadimas.

The mayor of Thermo presented the ambassador with a handmade wooden carved icon of St. Paraskevi by Theofani Siachou, which also included a personal dedication. Also, on behalf of the Diplatanos Society, Gournelos gifted a silver icon of St. Marina.