Greek Community of Melbourne reaches out to Greeks in flood affected areas of Echuca

A delegation from the Greek Community of Melbourne, as well as teachers, students visited flood ravaged Echuca

Members of the Greek community of Echuca at the event organised by the Greek Community of Melbourne Victoria. Photo: Supplied

Melbourne.- A 20-strong delegation from the Greek Community of Melbourne, including board members, teachers, students, and parents visited Echuca on Sunday December 11 to assist the flood affected community.

Echuca is an Aboriginal name meaning “meeting of the waters” and indicates how important rivers have been in the town’s history. The town and its NSW counterpart Moama have been hit by the recent floods.

“Floods are terrible events to say the least, people are displaced, properties and buildings are destroyed, livelihoods are lost, and communities become stretched,” the President of the Greek Community of Melbourne Bill Papastergiadis OAM said.

OPA restaurant, owned by Nick and Maria Raftellis, held an event for the Greek Community representatives, as well as local guests that included representatives from the mayor’s office and from the office of local member of parliament the National’s Peter Walsh.

The Greek Community’s principal Maria Bakalidou assisted by Christina Soumi, Eleni Demitriou and drama teachers Jeremy Artis and Katerina Poutachidou organised a cultural program.

The President of the Greek Community of Melbourne, Victoria Bill Papastergiadis OAM with the students who performed for the Echuca community. Photo: Supplied

The students put on a theatrical performance, that included Greek dance, and Christmas carols, as well as a Karagiozi shadow puppet show.

Mr Papastergiadis, presented a $6000 cheque to assist those affected by the floods. Part of this amount came from the ticket sales of the Creative Drama Group who recently staged the play ’22’ in memory of those impacted by the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe. Additional donors included Bill Papastergiadis OAM, Greek Community Secretary Nick Koukouvitakis, Vice Presidents Michael Karamitos, Dr Jim Bossinakis and board directors Christos Sikavitsas, Dr Nick Dallas, Tass Sgardelis, Kostas Stefanidis and Alexi Kosta.

The president of the Greek Community said, he wants to engage regional Greek communities in Victoria with the Community’s cultural products.

He said the evidence of their outreach was the way the Greek language students were “warmly embraced by the residents of Rochester and Echuca.”

“I’d like to thank our students, our school principal Maria and all our teachers along with our education convenors Nick Dallas and Tass Sgardelis for putting this event together,” Mr Papastergiadis said.

The Greek Community president singled out Nick Koukouvitakis for conceiving the event and “building the bridges between our organisation and the residents of Rochester and Echuca.”

He thanked Maria and Nick Raftellis for their hospitality in OPA and went on to thank Con and Kathy Kostoglou “who worked tirelessly to bring everyone together.”

“We want this event to act as a springboard for the GCM’s greater engagement with regional Victoria.”