Honoring Those Who Preserved the Heritage
From Working to Preserve Our Heritage: The Incredible Legacy of Greek-American Community Services:
"Since its earliest days, the motto of GACS was 'Working to Preserve Our Heritage.' GACS endeavored to do so in both its cultural activities as well as in its services to the community. In this era, it was common to host fundraising dinner dances, and many organizations depended on these annual events for a major portion of their budgets. In some cases, there were 800, sometimes even 1,000 or more people in attendance. In addition to the funds that were raised, dinners provided an opportunity for attendees to socialize and gather in support of the cause at hand.
When GACS considered having a dinner dance to raise funds late in 1986, Elaine suggested that we present an award to someone who had preserved our heritage in some way. Upon further discussion, the award was named the Heritage Award. Lena Xydes, who was GACS treasurer at the time, recommended Peter Lallas to chair the event. Peter was active in leadership roles within AHEPA and St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church. He was the owner of Carpet Forest, a three-store carpet business with its main location in an old Woolworth’s store in the heart of Jefferson Park, on Milwaukee Avenue, north of Lawrence. His wife Evelyn served as co-chair.
As a new organization with a smaller base of supporters, Peter recommended that GACS honor multiple people from different disciplines for preserving the heritage in their own unique ways. It was assumed that each honoree would bring in at least one table of ten, although that wasn’t the case. Some honorees would take several tables while others accepted the complimentary tickets and didn’t donate anything beyond that. Peter felt that since we were honoring people, the dinners should be elegant, and those he organized were black-tie optional. Peter and Evelyn chaired the dinners for the first two years. Ethel and her cousin Mary Bennos handled the reservations and seating arrangements for most of the GACS Heritage Awards dinners.
On May 1, 1987, with 'Working to Preserve our Heritage' as our guidepost, GACS honored six distinguished individuals who had lived up to our motto during the First Annual Heritage Awards Dinner. They were Dr. Andrew Kopan (noted historian of Chicago’s Greek community and education professor at DePaul University), Dr. Yorgos Kourvetaris (sociology professor at Northern Illinois University and Greek researcher), Dr. Charles Moskos (professor at Northwestern University and researcher on the Greek community in the United States), Theano Papazoglou Margaris (noted author on the Greek American experience), and Harry Mark Petrakis (award-winning author on the Greek experience in Chicago). The event was held at Diplomat Banquets (Fullerton and Central) and had an attendance of about 100 guests. A retired Greek Orthodox priest, unknown to most in attendance, offered the opening prayer, further evidence of the meager support GACS received from the Bishop and the Diocese of Chicago.
A report in the August 1987 edition of the GACS newsletter described the evening:
'The First Annual Greek-American Community Services Heritage Awards was a stunning success. A full house greeted the five 1987 Awards recipients; Alexander Karanikas, Andrew Kopan, Yorgos Kourvetaris, Charles Moskos, and Theano Papazoglou-Margaris, as they were honored for their outstanding contributions to recording and preserving the Greek American experience through their works.'
Peter Lallas, who with his wife Evelyn was co-chair of the event, read congratulatory messages from Governor Michael Dukakis, Governor James Thompson, Mayor Harold Washington, County Board President George Dunne, and Zion City Mayor/Illinois State Senator Adeline Geo-Karis. In her welcoming remarks Evangeline Mistaras, GACS President, echoed the theme of the evening, GACS’s mission of ‘Working to Preserve our Heritage.’ This motto was presented to GACS by the late Harry Milakis, a devoted member of GACS.
Upon receiving their awards from John Psiharis and Elaine Thomopoulos, the Honorees made short but memorable acceptance speeches. Dr. Alexander Karanikas concluded the presentation by reading the Honor Roll of Greek American writers and poets whose contributions to our community should be recognized."
Invitation to the First Annual Heritage Awards Dinner Banquet, May 1, 1987. John Psiharis collection.
The Greek Star. May 1987. Elaine Thomopoulos collection.
Heritage Award presented to Theano Papazoglou Margaris by GACS on May 1, 1987. From the National Hellenic Museum - Theano Papazoglou-Margaris collection.