Summer student camps are opening one after another, foreign groups from the diaspora are also arriving, so Csongor Csáky, the president of the Association, who was asked about the programs by M1 News and Kossuth Rádió's Sunday News program, had something to report. velvidek.ma reviews the combined content of the conversations below.
Since June 4, the Rákóczi Association has been in the thick of events - the president began. This year, the day of national unity coincided with the Pentecost farewell in Csíksomlyo, to which we were able to take 300 high school students on the pilgrimage train. While in Sátoraljaújhely, we were able to hold the traditional solidarity day celebration with the participation of a thousand young people and the President of the Republic Katalin Novák, the fact that our new sports center was completed at the same time as the Rákóczi Camp contributed to the uplifting atmosphere.
Csongor Csáky (Photo: Péter Pásztor/Felvidék.ma)
We trust that from now on, in the coming decades, this place can be a decisive meeting point for young Hungarians, the historical and cultural environment represented by Zemplén, Sárospatak, Borsi, Kassa and Sátoraljaújhely itself: with the memories of Saint Elizabeth and Rákóczi.
After the fourth of June, the events that we organized in cooperation with our partners began to take place: a Polish-Hungarian high school camp with the Polish Felczak Foundation, while we held a free university together with the Matthias Corvinus Collegium and the Prime Minister's Office.
A Transcarpathian folk dance camp for 500 people also ended recently in Sátoraljaújhely, in which the traditional folk dancers of Tiszapéter village, young and old, took part. They danced for a week with bands such as István Pál's "Szalonna" and his Band. There were many enthusiastic instructors with them. In the evening, gala shows and theater performances added color to the program, and we hope that these children will return home with many experiences that helped them recharge their batteries and forget everything that surrounds them at home.
And now the classic big camps of the Rákóczi Association are starting: today we are expecting 650 high school students from the entire Carpathian basin, including Hungary. They come from secondary schools in which our organizations operate, and we are very happy that after two years burdened by epidemics, the diaspora can finally appear. Nearly 50 young people have already arrived from North America, Spain, and Sweden. They will not only participate in the camp that is just starting, but also the young people of the diaspora will be there in our camps of 500 people every week until September, by the end of the summer, about half a thousand will come from Australia, Canada and Europe.
Among the high school camps, there are four native language camps for the youngest, who live on the language border or in scattered places. They come from places such as Máramaros, Southern Transylvania, and Zoboralja, where the Hungarian language is in decline, and despite this, the children all attend Hungarian schools thanks to their parents. With these camps, we want to reinforce to them that even though the Hungarian language may be in decline at home, maybe outside of school they can only use it in the family, but here they see that the Hungarian nation is a multitude, everyone here speaks Hungarian, the subtitles are Hungarian , and they can return home with the memory that it is good to belong to this culture and this community. We want to offer this experience to young people from the diaspora as well.
There will be a camp organized for teachers during the summer, where teachers who are in close contact with us throughout the year, who carry the cause of the Rákóczi Association on their shoulders in the various high schools, will come, and we would like to thank them for their work with this week full of continuing education, cultural and entertainment programs. Our camps in Sátoraljaújhely close at the end of the summer with a week organized for university students.
However, we have organized special camps in many parts of the country.
Such is the drama camp in Székesfehérvár, whose participants can participate in the ceremonial games of the Coronation Days. Our sailing camps have been operating for three years thanks to vascular surgeon Professor Lajos Kollár. As the president of the Hungarian Sailing Association, he suggested that we also bring children from across the border, and since then we have had seven camps in Orfű, Nyékládháza and Tihany. New this year is a camp for cyclists in Mátra, offered by a doctor and local entrepreneur to students from the highlands. If everything goes as planned, and the Providence will be with us, then the Rákóczi Association will be able to host more than six thousand students in its various camps, he said.
Answering questions, Csángor Csáky looked back on the formation of this "big factory", which is about the three decades of diligent work, the master and artist of which was president József Halzl,
who always wove relationships, winning the trust of supporters and building for the long term. The Rákóczi Association enjoys the trust of the Hungarian Government, and fortunately, Hungary has a government that considers the cause that the association represents to be important. Of course, in addition to the government, many large corporations, companies and private individuals also support our work, he emphasized. This trust gives us strength, as well as the young people who used to enjoy our camps as high school students, and now as university students, feel that they want to give something back to the Association. They are with us all summer long, they help with organization and management, and the fact that the atmosphere of our camps is so good is also due to the small age difference between them and the campers, which also makes communication easy. The enthusiastic work of these 50 university students contributes to the success of our camps, he emphasized.
Source and full article: Felvidek.ma
Featured image: velvidek.ma
