CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Czech School students learned how to bake kolaches today, with help from the expert kolache-makers from St. Monica’s Circle at St. Wenceslaus Church. Students rolled balls of the dough, used a glass to form a perfect circle in the center and filled the dough with poppyseed, cherry, apricot and prune filling, […]
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Photos: Czech School students learn art ...
Master Czech Folk Artist, Marj Nejdl of Cedar Rapids, led the older division Czech School students through the steps of kraslice, the art of decorating eggs. Students learned how to use wax and dye to create designs and layers of color and even how to blow the yolk out of the eggs, at the Glovik […]
Photos: St. Ludmila Kolach Festival
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The Kolach Festival has been an annual tradition at St. Ludmila’s Catholic Church for decades, first getting its start in 1938. This year’s festival, from June 8-10, 2018, was particularly poignant, as St. Ludmila’s School closed at the end of this school year, due to declining enrollment. Part of the Holy […]
Photos: Czech National Cemetery Memorial...
CEDAR RAPIDS – It’s been years since the Czech National Cemetery’s Memorial Day Service was actually held at the cemetery, at 2200 C St. SW in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Weather on Memorial Day in Iowa often fluctuates between wet and dreary and, as was the case today, hot and humid, so the St. Wenceslaus Glovik […]
Homegrown talent: Maddie Poppe’s America
ALLISON, Iowa – Iowans can be proud. Not only is Maddie Poppe in the top three of “American Idol,” but the 20-year-old Clarksville native is just as humble, Iowa-nice and incredibly talented in person as she appears on the show. A homecoming parade welcomed her back to Clarksville on Tuesday, May 15, followed by a […]
Guts & Glory tells forgotten WWI story o
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – A multimedia exhibit that opened Saturday, April 7, 2018, at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library offers a number of unique twists. The background story, itself, is a little-known narrative of 60,000 Czech and Slovak soldiers who seized the Trans-Siberian railroad during World War I and fought their way […]
Photos: Iowa’s diverse cultures celebrat
TAMA – Food, ethnic costumes and art brought diverse groups together on March 19 to celebrate cultural connections. South Tama Elementary was the site for “This is Us: Celebrating our Diverse Community,” featuring a potluck dinner, fashion show and art exhibit. Representatives from Meskwaki, Czech, Hispanic and Somali cultures highlighted their cultural dress and even […]
Iowa dance hall owners quash closing rum...
WALFORD – Rumors of their wedding hall/ballroom being sold or closed were just that: rumors, said Paul and Connie Louis, co-owners since 2003 of the Ponderosa Ballroom in Walford, Iowa. The two addressed the gossip Sunday, March 18, 2018, during the Czech Heritage Foundation’s St. Joseph’s Day Dance, a longtime annual tradition at the hall. […]
Photos: Bernie Sanders returns to Iowa
By Cindy Hadish CEDAR RAPIDS – An adoring crowd greeted Sen. Bernie Sanders back to Cedar Rapids, during a “Repeal the TrumpTax” tour of the Midwest. Sounding much like his presidential campaign rallies of 2016, Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke to hundreds of supporters Friday, Feb. 23, at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. “Now is not the time for […]
Unconventional Czech tradition kept aliv...
CEDAR RAPIDS – Czechs in Cedar Rapids are carrying on the longtime Mardi Gras-style costume ball tradition known as Šibřinky. Hosted by Sokol Cedar Rapids, the event has been celebrated the past several years at the St. Wenceslaus Church gym – including one on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018 – after decades at the former Sokol […]