Children's Costume Party 

Once again we held our annual "Kindertrachtenfest" on Sunday April 20^th, 2008. Our young folk demonstrated their dancing and singing talents in their lovely Danube Schwaben Trachten. Our guests for this event were the "Weiss Blau Bayern Junior Dancers" from the Hansa Haus Club in Mississauga.

We are trying to promote participation of the younger groups with different German clubs in our area. Our group attended the Hansa Haus’s "Kinderfest" on May 4^th.

The audience was treated with coffee and yummy home-made cookies in the middle of the tables from our moms, omas, and aunts and we are grateful.

The program started with an "Einmarsch" bringing in all of the different age groups, plus the Weiss Blau group, and the instructors for all groups.

Miss Danube 2008, Jennifer Domotor, lead the long line of participants around the hall. What a sight!!

Mr. Mike Nemeth provided great music all afternoon. He is a wonderful supporter of our "Kindergruppe", someone who is always there when we need him!!

It was my pleasure to welcome everyone. Mrs. Lina Forstner, President of the "Frauengruppe", and Mr. Mike Lutz, President of our club, added their welcoming remarks.

Some of our beautiful girls modeled their "Original Trachten", which are very special outfits from our ancestors, many of which are in their 4^th generation in Canada!! Our ever ready and handsome President Mr. Mike once again stepped in to usher our young ladies around.

One of our special Omi’s, Edith Hehn-Murray, introduced each girl, read their family lines, and let us know from which town the "Tracht" originated. She also spoke a wonderful poem about our "Heimat", which was much appreciated.

Weiss-Blau Bayern Juniors and Danube Swabian youth wearing their respective costumes

Our guests, the Weiss Blau Bayern Dancers then performed 2 wonderful dances, and Trina Harany played delightful music with her bells. Everyone enjoyed their enriching participation.

Next on our agenda was the "Kindergruppe", our youngest group dancing 4 different dances, one of which we just started to rehearse a few weeks ago. The children are really enjoying it. It was given to me by Annie Hudson, and I was told that it was a song and dance that many of our Omas and Opas did in school when tey were young. The audience helped us out with the singing part, as we have many little voices that are a wee bit shy.

The "Juniorgruppe" is our second group. They have been very brave this season considering that we have lost our super dance instructor Heidi Mueller last year, as her boys moved up to the youth group. A joint effort of working together is making this group successful, which is something to be proud of. They performed 4 dances beautifully!

At this point we had an intermission, and used the time to sell raffle tickets for our "Trachten Puppe". This year Mrs. Katie Schwemlein generously donated a doll that her mother, (Katie Schwab) had made. Katie’s support of our young group is very special and importent! Our winner, which was drawn by our Princess Jennifer, was Mr. Andy Mora, who said the doll will go to his new grand-daughter.

The second half of our program started with Omi Szauter singing some traditional songs with our little birds. This always makes sweet memories for our older audience, as they remember singing these songs when they were young.

One of our dad’s, Bernie Mandl, did a wonderful job of giving a little history lesson to all of our children about their heritage. He spoke about being a "Donau Schwab" and how special it is. We will look forward to having him speak at future events as well.

Once again Weiss Blau performed two great dances, and Trina’s songs rang sweetly around the room. Trina was taught to play the bells by her mother Carmen Harany, who is the dance instructor for the Weiss Blau group. Thank you so much Trina for adding your special touch to our day.

Our oldest group, the Seniorgruppe, was next. They have been wonderfully instructed this year again by Carrie Turman.

This is the hardest group to be in, as it is the closest to the "YOUTH GROUP". Every dancer can hardly wait to graduate into this exciting group. They performed 4 lively dances that made all their families so proud of them!!

Due to having a struggle with keeping the boys as they get older, a girls group was formed. They danced around the floor next, and demonstrated how sweet it is to have all the flowers whirling around the floor. They are unique dances, which are also a part of our heritage. I think that the girls really enjoy these feminine dances, and we enjoy seeing them.

It wouldn’t be Kindertrachtenfest if we didn’t have an audience participation dance!! So once again, all our young dancers grabbed a partner, some willing, some hesitant, and lead them to the dance floor. Heidi Mueller did the honors of leading us in this mass dance. What fun!!! Everyone finished with a BIG smile on their face, and feeling like they had participated to some extent in our day!

An afternoon like this wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for a lot of help!!

Thank you’s go out to, Carmen Harany, our beautiful Princess Jennifer, Omi Hehn, Mike Nemeth, the Frauengruppe, Bernie Mandl, all cookie Ladies, and Mr. President.

Thank you presents were given to all of my teachers and helpers, Carrie Turman, Erich Hehn, Edith Urban, Deanne Vincent, and Cheyenne Kertes, and to my book keeping gals Petra Galowitsch, and Karen Lutz.

I also thank the audience so much for coming, and we look forward to next year already.

Lorie Szauter