25th anniversary of the townpartnership between Stegersbach and Northampton.

On Saturday, July 8, Stegersbach remembered 25 years of town partnership with Northampton, initiated at the time by the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft (BG), while Northampton celebrated this anniversary with a parallel event on its "Stegersbach Square." We in Stegersbach were honored by the visit of Dr. Paul Iby, Bishop of the Diocese of Burgenland, who had come to town to celebrate mass with us. This service was dedicated to the people who have emigrated from Burgenland, particularly those who emigrated to Northampton. The bishop thanked Stegersbach for being so committed to this partnership. After the service, the attendants were meant to walk through Stegersbach to the festively decorated and flag-flying "Northampton Square" for the second part of the festivities. Unfortunately, a heavy downpour of rain made it necessary to go straight to the hall which had been prepared for the final part of the event and where a great and festive evening unfolded. Stegersbach mayor Heinz Krammer and BG President Walter Dujmovits gave welcome addresses. The Stegersbach music band and the tamburizza group from Güttenbach guaranteed for a special and lively get-together. A highlight was the performance by the Styrian-button-box group Southern Burgenland, notably the excellent performance given by the rising stars Philipp Zach (Deutsch Kaltenbrunn) and Elisabeth Keglovits (Deutsch Tschantschendorf). Only a few days earlier the two had won the Austrian button box championship. The town of Stegersbach and the local associations made a real effort to make the festivities a success – we are most grateful to them and all their staff members. 

BG Picnic

On the following Sunday July 9, the annual picnic was held on the premises of the wine museum of Moschendorf. This year's picnic was a special event – it was the 40th in its history, and held in the anniversary-rich year 2000 at that. The first picnic had been hosted in 1961 at the Burg Güssing by the then BG President Toni Lantos, remembering the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the province of Burgenland. As in past years, the picnic 2000 brought numerous people "back home" from the USA, Canada and Switzerland. Among those present was also Peter Vadasz, mayor of the "town of expatriate Burgenländers" Güssing, and the representative of the official Burgenland so to speak. We were pleased to welcome, once again, Gustav Chlestil, President of the "Weltbund der Österreicher im Ausland," who had come from Belgium to pay his respects to the attendants of the picnic and to commend the BG on its work. Gisela Hirmann (Passaic) and Rudy Drauch (New York) brought the best wishes of our compatriotes in the USA, as did Susan Zickgraf, voted "Miss Burgenland New York" by the Burgenländers in the USA. Two days after the picnic, we took this charming young lady and her relatives on a sightseeing tour through Southern Burgenland. The evening was crowned with a "wine baptism" – a locally grown wine was given the name Susan, with Susan's relatives and BG board members attending the event. 

BG meets BB

Prominent American representatives of the Burgenland Bunch (BB) attended both the townpartnership festivities in Stegersbach and the BG picnic in Moschendorf. Having written a lot and with deep commitment about the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft in their newsletters and on the Internet, they now had the first opportunity to get to know the homeland of their forefathers and to see everything with their own eyes. They represent a big and growing important potential of new friends of the Burgenland. On August 13, finally, the BB staff resident in Burgenland got together to meet both each other and representatives from the USA and the BG for the first time. Now nothing stands in the way of a good cooperation. What is so great about this development is that it is above all young people who seek to foster this attachment of expatriate Burgenländers and their descendants all over the world to Burgenland.

translation by Ingeborg Schuch