VISITING
AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE
JANUARY
2011
CARPATHIA
KIRCHWEIH 2010
Forwarded
by Carpathia Donauschwaben
Kirchweih is always a big crowd pleaser and this year was no
exception. There were many new faces, the usual faces and a lot of the
faces we haven’t seen in a while. We even had a table of hunters’
widows. The evening began with the Masters of Ceremonies, Robert
Schwalbe, introducing the out of town guests in attendance as well as
the board of directors of Carpathia that were present. Rob then asked
Honorary President Franz Pelvay to address the audience about the
tradition and custom of Kirchweih. What would a Kirchwieh in Detroit
be without some heartfelt words from Mr. Pelvay? Believe me he did not
disappoint us. Now we know the meaning of the flowers in the boy’s
hats.
Rob then acknowledged the two (sort of) out of town dance groups,
Milwaukee and three young men from Cleveland. He did a great job
emceeing the entire evening.
The new royalty, Victoria Schwager and Robert Thomas led the Einmarsch
of the Kirchweih Strauss followed by the dance groups. We had
Milwaukee, Cleveland, Carpathia Kinder and Middle, Carpathia Youth and
Carpathia Kulture groups entertain for us. They all did an excellent
job.
The crowd especially liked the return of the Boom Polka. That’s the
dance where Rob Schwalbe “acts” as a dance instructor but as his
group is practicing very hard, he’s having a little dinner and drink
but does find time to bang the drum. Very entertaining Rob! The
Milwaukee group did an outstanding performance with only four couples.
We really appreciate all the out-of-towner’s who made this trip to
our club, and the performers who learned the dances that day. Very
impressive.
The band also was from out-of-town. We had the pleasure of the Hank
Haller band from Cleveland, Ohio. The dance floor was packed from the
beginning to the very end of the evening.
Most people associate the number 13 as bad luck but not this Saturday
the 13th. We had 7 birthday celebrations! The band announced and
called up, Kate Lingerfelt, Ilona Schwager, Chris Pesta, Lori Sikorski,
Bob Hammer, Franz Dosenberger and a very special 90 year old, our own
very dear, Mr. Franz Pelvay. The audience sang and wished Happy
Birthday to all of them.
The strauss raffle was saved until later in the evening. We like to
keep our guest as long as we can. Kurt Seiberling and George Schleis
took turns entertaining us on the mic. It was a tough job trying to
keep up with all the money being waved up in the air, but they did
very well. The crowd was entertained in between the raffle breaks by
the male dancers from the all the groups. The pyramid was attempted
but this year, not successfully. Everyone’s getting bigger I guess.
Kurt was cracking jokes with a lot of the patrons, one being Helmut
Egger. Kurt asked “Hey Helmut, what, did the wife give you an extra
$5 this evening?” Well guess who won the Strauss??? Helmut
Egger!!!!! With Liane being in Florida, he yelled “Who am I going to
dance with?” Well, before he could get the words out of his mouth,
his beautiful granddaughters, Victoria and Elizabeth, were at his
side. It was a very touching moment.
By
Ruth & Kurt Seiberling
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