Dan Hooks remembers it just like it was yesterday.
Just a little over a decade ago, he and his wife, Paula, who are parishioners of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Slovak, took a trip to Slovakia.
“It was a trip that had an ancestry connection. We were able to do family research and locate ancestors. We knew where the village was where the old folks came from. Between research ourselves … We hired a genealogist … who followed up with our leads and our information and located family members. We were able to pull off a tour on the trip we were on and spend a day in our ancestral village meeting long-distance cousins,” he said.
When they returned, the Hooks family decided to put together a presentation for the parish, as many of the parishioners were also of Slovakian descent.
Other parishioners decided to put together a potluck of Slovakian foods and baked goods to accompany the presentation, and some foods and items were auctioned off as a fundraiser. The parishioners called it a heritage study.
The Hooks family and the parishioners of Sts. Cyril and Methodius didn’t realize it at the time, but they had just hosted the first annual Slovak Heritage Day, with the Hooks family accounting for two of the present-day organizers.
Slovak, originally called Slovaktown, resulted from efforts to encourage immigrant settlements in Arkansas in the 1890s. The town was established by 25 families who settled in southern Prairie County in 1894.
Pastor Father Shaun Wesley, who also serves St. Rose of Lima in Carlisle, said the event has grown yearly.
“We always have exhibitions in the hall where people bring family memorabilia and genealogical information and different Slovakian artifacts or hand-me-downs that they put out on display on tables. And then there’s always a time for people to visit and hang around and talk to one another and look at all of those things,” he said.
The parish tries to host the Slovak Heritage Day each year close to Feb. 14, the feast day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who were declared the co-patron saints of Europe in 1980 by St. John Paul II, the first Slavic pope.
This year’s festivities started with exhibitions of Slovak memorabilia and photos and general visiting. At 11 a.m., the parish celebrated a Mass in honor of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, followed by a heritage potluck.
“People bring different kinds of Slovak food, or if they’re not of Slovak heritage, they bring whatever it is that they’re known for eating in their family,” Father Wesley said.
Attendees also got to hear from two notable guests after lunch. Radovan Javorčík, ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the United States, traveled from Washington, D.C., to speak to parishioners.
“We always have some kind of special event or presentation,” Father Wesley said. “And so this year we were honored to have (Javorčík) speak to us and share with us about his work and about current life in Slovakia.”
Following Javorčík’s presentation, parishioners got to view the trailer for a documentary, “Slovakia in the South: The Legacy of Slovaktown, Arkansas,” which has been in progress for the past three years.
Deah Partak, president of the nonprofit UpRooted Media, is producing the documentary. Based in Portland, Partak is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Slovakia. She started a GoFundMe three years ago to cover the production costs. Partak unveiled her $6,700 fundraiser to Slovak parishioners and friends in the fall of 2022. She quickly exceeded her fundraiser goal, raising more than $24,000.
“Through UpRooted Media, our group making the documentary, we focus on amplifying the voices of Slovaks living abroad and promoting multicultural representation in history and media,” she said. “Our work helps preserve and share cultural stories that benefit both current and future generations.”
The loss of Partak’s own ethnic connections motivated her to prevent such an event from happening in Slovak.
“Growing up in a Slovak-American household, I had heard stories from my parents and grandparents about Joliet, Ill., once a thriving Slovak community,” she said. “My grandparents even ran a tavern that served as a gathering place until the community dispersed. Knowing the pain of losing that connection, I didn’t want the same fate for Slovaktown. The mission to preserve and share its story took off quickly.”
The 90-minute documentary will explore “the history, cultural heritage and present-day reality of this unique Slovak-American community.”
“It traces the journey of Slovak immigrants who, in the late 19th century, left Austria-Hungary in search of opportunity, eventually settling in Arkansas. Through historical records and personal stories, the film uncovers the visionaries who helped establish Slovaktown and the recruitment efforts that brought Slovak families to the region,” Partak said.
The documentary is tentatively scheduled to come out this August. More information on the documentary can be found at uprooted-media.com.
Following the documentary trailer premiere and the discussion, parishioners played polka music and danced.
Mary Ann Hill, one of the festival organizers, said it’s important to preserve the past for future parishioners.
“It’s all part of our community,” she said. “It’s how we all came to be, and we have to protect it. We have to share it as much as we can… If they know about their heritage, if they know about their family history, it’s going to tie it all together. It’s going to bring them back to the community. It’s going to keep our church alive. And that’s what our main focus is — to keep our family together. And so that all of this information can be passed down, and it will live when we are all gone.”
Father Wesley believes the annual festival not only boosts morale but also reminds parishioners of their long-standing faith tradition.
“The people are very proud of their heritage and are very conscious of their genealogy. I think it is good when you have that identity because their cultural identity is also very much tied in with their Catholic fate. I think Sts. Cyril and Methodius, being the patron saints at the parish, has also contributed to that, being that they were really the evangelists, the ones who brought the Catholic faith and Catholic worship to Slovakia and that part of the world,” he said. “People remember their roots. It helps to enliven their faith and their sense of community, and all of that goes hand in hand together.”
