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About Us As young
members of the
Magyar Báráti Közösség (Hungarian
Communion of Friends), we created the Hope Gala Ball
to celebrate a shared culture and heritage and to
support Hungarian youth programs.
Magyar Báráti Közösség
is a nonprofit organization, exempt from federal
taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S.
Internal Revenue Code of 1954. Through our
previous balls, we have helped thousands of
Hungarians in Serbia, the Ukraine, Slovakia,
Transylvania, and in the United States.
Committee
Members
Mikolt Bányai, Co-Chair
Tibor R. Dani, Jr., Co-Chair
Irén Dala & Péter Tamás
Lillian Érdy
Marta Grabowska
Paulette Layton
Thomas Marshall
Ilona Somogyi
Zsuzsanna Somogyi
Gyula & Chilla Varga
History
In 1994, Paulette Layton and Ilona Somogyi made
a determination during the Magyar Báráti
Közösség’s annual conference, commonly known as
Itt Ott, at Lake Hope State Park in Ohio. Both
young women, longtime Itt-Ott participants, were
concerned about the youth’s growing estrangement
from its own heritage.
Young people were not
attending the conference as frequently as they had in
the past; membership in other Hungarian-American
organizations was on the wane; and interest in
Hungarian language and culture had
diminished over the years. As young men and
women became adults, complete with jobs,
spouses, children, they found less and less time
to set aside for their own heritage.
Rather than join the ranks of estranged youth,
Paulette and Ilona wanted to do the opposite by
organizing a debutante
ball--the Reménység Bál. The idea behind the ball was to provide
an elegant, affordable evening to a large group
of people --young and old --who shared one thing-- a common heritage.
Not only was the Reménység Bál designed as an evening of
entertainment and socializing, it was also
meant to honor important Hungarians who have
enriched generations of Hungarian-Americans with
their steadfast, hard work. The Reménység Bál
celebrated the selfless efforts of these
individuals and their accomplishments, but it
also held them as examples of what individuals
could realize.
As the Reménység Bál
moves into its ninth season, it continues to
grow and to expand, extending its rays of hope
into the lives of the people that it touches.
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