NEW YORK – Feelings of national pride, but also hope for the younger generation of the Greek-American community and the inseparable relationship it maintains with the ideals of Greece, prevailed during the celebration of the Consulate General of Greece in New York for ‘OXI’ Day October 28, with the participation of students from three of the Greek community schools.

The event took place on October 27 at the Consulate General of Greece in New York, which welcomed students from St. Demetrios School in Astoria, the Cathedral School of the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and the Hellenic Classical Charter School of Brooklyn, who presented part of the performances they had prepared for their school celebrations.

Consul General of Greece in New York Konstantinos Konstantinou welcomed the students and the teaching staff, together with Consul Dimitris Papageorgiou, expressing his joy and optimism for passing the torch of historic memory and the ideals of Hellenism to Greek-American students.

“Congratulations are due to the parents and teachers of these schools who have passed on the values and principles of Hellenism to the children – I am very happy about this,” said Konstantinou, emphasizing, in his statements, the importance of the students’ participation in such events.

“Today, we had the great pleasure of hosting students from Greek schools in the area at the premises of the Consulate General of New York to celebrate the great celebration of October 28th. It is an historic day, a day of remembrance, which no one should forget, let alone the Greek Diaspora that is so many thousands of kilometers away from the homeland. There is nothing more beautiful than to see school children recounting these historic feats of the war in 1940, and it is really moving for me to see that the flame of Hellenism is still alive,” said the Consul General.

The head of the Greek program at St. Demetrios, Rita Syntilas, with many years of teaching experience in Greek-American community, declared that, “I am very touched that we met at the Consulate General in New York to celebrate the anniversary of October 28, 1940. The children were given the opportunity to feel that they belong here, in the Greek house, to get to know other schools as well. The Epic of 1940 always inspires us, it opens the way for freedom, justice, the great ideals of our people.” St. Demetrios High School Assistant Principal Helen Karagiorgos shared similar sentiments, saying, “we want to thank Mr. Konstantinou for inviting us, Evelyn Kanellea for organizing this celebration… while we are happy that we participated with the other schools. The Greek staff in every school is fighting for the language and culture in the Greek diaspora. We thank all at the Consulate General for standing by the Hellenism of the Diaspora.”