President’s message

The Pan Arcadian Federation of America welcomes you…

GREETINGS:

I am grateful to all of you for electing me to the position of the President
of our Great Federation. I will do my best and work hard with the Board of Directors to achieve our organization’s Goals and follow the PFA Constitution.

It is a privilege and an honor to serve our historic Federation, one of the most dynamic Greek American organizations.

Some primary goals are:

• The increase in the number of members of our Federation.
• The creation of cultural, educational, and social activities, and projects, for all our members.
• The passing on of the Hellenic spirit to the next generation
• The promotion of the ideals of Hellenism, the principles of democracy, the preservation of the Greek language cultural heritage, and the Greek Orthodox values.
• The support of the Arcadian and Arcadian-American philanthropic cultural and educational institutions.

To achieve all the above, we must attract more young and old members to be involved. Therefore, please participate in our Federation.
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In the past, the Pan Arcadian Federation of America participated with a delegation by the past PFA president Mr. Chris Vournas to the renaming ceremony of Beaver College in Pennsylvania to Arcadia University. This University established a department in Athens, Greece. Students could benefit from the experience of studying at a U.S.-accredited institution of higher learning in the heart of Athens when it reopens. I tried to get in touch with them, but they had closed because of COVID.

Here are a few of my activities in Greece in the summer of 2022:

• I met with The District Governor, Mr. Nikas, two times in Tripoli.  We talked about the following:  hosting young PFA members in Arcadia, Arkadiko Horio, and Astros, participating in Cultural/Educational Events, and visiting monuments, historical sites, and tourist attractions.
• I met with the president of Arkadian Village, Mr. Spyros Apostolopoulos, and talked about the Celebration of Naming the Square of the Village.
• I met with the Mayor of North Kynouria, Mr. George Kampylis, about Naming the Square at Arkadian Village, “Square of the Diaspora Arcadians” «Πλατεία Αποδήμων Αρκάδων”

I would like all of us to share our thoughts about the future of our Federation.
A critical topic is social media Fαcebook and websites. What will come out must follow the line of the Constitution of the Pan-Arcadian Federation of America.
Why is social media so important for nonprofits?
These platforms allow us to tell the Federation’s story. Done well, social media messages can help us bring in new members, engage supporters, capturing and retain their attention. Social media can also increase awareness of our Federation’s plans, activities, and philanthropic efforts, which may support fundraising.  Facebook has nearly 3 billion users, proving its enormous impact on social media worldwide.

Another critical topic is attracting the youth. We should focus on creating activities here in America, which will help attract young, older, and all Arcadians who live in this country. Their desires and needs are important to us, and we should give them the initiative to express what they want and try to make it happen. For this reason, I would like to ask you, young and old, to help us prepare an action plan and how to go about it.

I would appreciate it if you would send me your ideas and the steps to follow through by e-mail at [email protected]

To raise awareness and attract the youth and new members, we can bring people closer to their Greek heritage and ideals. We could emphasize ideals such as philanthropy, philotimo, philoxenia, democracy, freedom, and the pursuit of excellence — all core components of Greek existence.

With a mission to impact people’s lives, let’s be inspired by Pericles’ quote that:
” What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”
What we do matters, and we are remembered for how we influence and treat people.
Our legacy should be what we teach. It should be that which we teach.

Angeliki Vournas, PFA President