The National Fraternal Congress of America (NFCA) is proud to recognize the following individuals as Fraternal MVPs (Most Valuable Participants) for the week of October 30, 2006. Fraternal MVPs are "Fraternalists-in-Action" who volunteer their time, energy and compassion to strengthen their communities through participation in local lodge activities and other charitable endeavors.

Christine M. Czerwinski
Catholic Order of Foresters (COF)
St. Procopius Court #443
Cicero, Illinois
Whether at the local or state level, Christine Czerwinski’s boundless energy serves her well as she organizes and participates in Catholic Order of Foresters’ activities. As her court’s chief ranger, she partnered with fellow officers and members to plan and execute several very successful JOIN HANDS DAY events. Activities included collecting resale items for a thrift shop that raises money to provide low-income families with free dental and healthcare, and holding a garage sale benefiting a local nursing and assisted-living facility.

But the past two years, “Operation Support Our Troops” received Christine and the court’s full JOIN HANDS DAY attention. Using the organization’s wish list, members collected enough items to fill 256 soldiers’ requests in 2005, and 500 in 2006. Both years, youth members created and included greeting cards in each overseas package.

Christine also serves as an Illinois state court trustee and youth director. Her responsibilities take her from the northern end to southern tip of the state making visitations or attending numerous court activities. She’s employed full-time as a high school purchasing clerk and transportation coordinator, and when not working or coordinating COF activities, Christine sings in the St. Pius X Church choir and volunteers for various parish projects and community causes.

Christine and her husband, Ron, reside in Cicero and have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Ruth Burns
National Slovak Society of the USA
Region 7, Assembly #731
Poland, Ohio
Raising 12 children gave Ruth Burns plenty of experience in the kitchen, so when she took her first job outside of her home, she was hired as the head cook at a local retirement home. She’s still working part-time at the Blackburn Home, where the residents love her cooking but they also connect with her on a personal level because she cares enough about each one of them to spend time talking to them about their lives and families, running errands for them, and helping them with their daily tasks. She truly enjoys brightening their day with special foods-from-the-past that they have not tasted for many years.

Ruth has also volunteered at St. Paul’s Preschool as a teacher’s aide. Some of the children in the program were autistic or had special needs and Ruth had the patience to work with them and their limitations. She helped them brush their teeth, made sure they ate properly, cleaned up their messes, and helped to control their behavior, but most importantly she would play with them. Even though she was much older than the teachers and aides, she was the one who would run, jump, crawl, color and sing with them.

As a charter member of the K-C Ettes, an organization for the wives of the Knights of Columbus Council 4471, Ruth has dedicated 48 years to the organization serving as their President, Vice-President, Secretary and Program Director. Ruth always gives 100 percent of her energy to every position she holds. In addition to the business activities of the organization, Ruth actively participates with the organization’s efforts to provide caring baskets to elderly nursing home patients and shut-ins, as well as Easter baskets and Christmas gifts to the St. Paul’s Preschool children.

Ruth has been active in the National Slovak Society’s Assembly 731 serving as Elder, Fraternal Director and Recording Secretary. She has helped organize and assist with annual assembly activities for children and adults such as the Christmas party, Easter egg and scavenger hunts, fishing derby, hayrides and picnics. Ruth enjoys being a part of the activities that include all family members, encouraging the younger generations and the older generations to listen and learn from one another.

Cynthia Larock
ACA Assurance
Chapter #52, Dr. Paul Fortier Chapter
Lewiston, Main
Cindy Larock is a member of ACA Chapter #52, Dr. Paul Fortier Chapter, in Lewiston, Maine, for which she has served as public relations coordinator for several years. She is particularly committed to preserving and promoting traditional French Canadian music and dance among Franco-American youth.

Towards those ends, she has organized numerous ACA-sponsored arts events to raise funds to support the establishment of a teen fiddle ensemble in Lewiston which performs old-time Quebecois jigs and reels under the direction of Maine folk musician John Cote, whose own family roots are in Quebec. Cindy herself is an experienced folk dancer who has learned French Canadian stepdancing (la gigue) and social dancing (la contredanse and la quadrille) from such respected Quebecois artists as Pierre Chartrand, Normand Legault and Yvan Gagne. In 2004, after being awarded multiple apprenticeships with Montreal master dancer Benoit Bourque through the Maine Arts Commission’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, she was designated as a Master Traditional Artist by the Commission. In this capacity, she passes the Franco dance traditions along to other younger Francos in Maine in order to keep those endangered cultural treasures alive for future generations.

Five years ago she founded the youth folk dance ensemble “Les Pieds Rigolants,” which she continues to coach and direct in performances throughout Maine and beyond, including past appearances at the American Folk Festival and the National Folk Festival in the U.S. and La Gigue en Fete in Ste. Marie de la Beauce. She has taught a course entitled “New England Folk Dance: The French Connection” as part of the Arts and Humanities curriculum at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, where she served for many years on the Advisory Board for the college's Franco-American archives. She also was very active with Lewiston's Festival de Joie and continues to volunteer with several cultural and educational organizations in the community while working full-time as administrator for a new cultural learning center at the Lewiston Public Library.