2010 Honor Roll Dancers

John and Carole Pappas

Number of Years Dancing :  34 years with MVFD

Club Elected Positions and Years Held (Pres., VP, Sec., etc.)

John:  Chair (4 yrs),  Vice-Chair (3 yrs),  Secretary (1 yr), MVDC Representative (1yr)

Carole:  Chair (3 yrs),  Vice-Chair (1 yr),  Secretary (1 yr), MVDC Representative (1yr)

Club Appointed Positions and Years Held (Kitchen Chairperson, etc.)

John:  Program Committee Chair (3 yrs),  Music Equipment Committee (many yrs)

Carole:  Program Committee Chair (3 yrs)

Service at Club Level (Kitchen, Greeters, Clean-up, Decorate, etc.)

John : Tape Committee Chair (more details in write-up)

Carol and John : Greeters on a continual basis (more details in write-up)

Number of Raids and Retrievals   Not Applicable

Special Activities (Organize or Assist with Demos, Weekend & Week-long Workshops, Special Dances, Parades, World A’Fair, State Fair, Festivals, etc.)

John: Chaired, with assistance from Carole, 15 weekend-long folk Dance workshops for MVFD.

John and Carole:  a multitude of dance demonstrations and performances for MVFD and South Slavic Club (SSC) in the Dayton area each year since 1974.

John : DIFI President (at least 15 yrs), DIFI Entertainment Chair (12 yrs), Dance Performer (33 yrs)

M.V.D.C Position and Years Held (Pres., VP, Treasurer, Trustee, etc.):  None

State & National Positions and Years Held (State Corp, State & National Convention Positions, etc.):  None

State & National Conventions Attended

State Convention, 1994, 2001, 2005.  Led session on international folk dancing in both 1994 & 2001

Write-Up

The Miami Valley folk Dancers are pleased to nominate John and Carole Pappas for the 2009 Honor Couple, in recognition of their many years of dedication to the promotion of international folk dancing in the Dayton community.

John and Carole Pappas have been active members of the Miami Valley Folk Dancers (MVFD) since 1974.  John was first elected to the Council in 1976, serving as secretary in 1976 and Chair in 1977.  He then served as Vice-Chair in 1981 and Chair in 1982, and again as Chair in both 1986 and 1987.  John was Vice-Chair once again in 1991. He is presently Vice-Chair.  Carole was first elected to the MVFD Council in 1978.  She served as secretary in 1978 and as Vice-Chair in 1979.  Carole then served as Chair in 1980, 1983, and 1984.

During many of the years they were not on Council, both Carole and John were often appointed to committees. John, for example, was appointed to the Program Committee in 1975 and 1990, and Carole was appointed to the Program Committee in 1996, 2001, and 2005.  John has also been asked to serve on several ad hoc committees, such as the one that reviewed the membership portion of the MVFD Rules and Regulations and the presently operating committee that was tasked to come up with a list of  MVFD beginner dances that will be implemented in our Orientation Class hour held every Thursday evening.  Carole and John both greet and assist any newcomers to the MVFD and any other dance events where they are in attendance.

John has been involved heavily in establishing, and maintaining the music for The Miami Valley Folk Dancers. He was the chair of the committee that transferred the original vinyl records to tape and then remained as chair of the new committee, the Tape Committee until the collection was digitized to computer files several years ago. He also helped with the digitizing process and maintains an extensive collection of organized tapes, records and digital media in his home. He is always willing to share this collection when the need arises for MVFD or for others. Dance leaders from around the world have found it to be an invaluable resource.  He has written many articles for "Miami Valley Dance News" and several for MVFD's quarterly newsletter.

John and Carole performed in the Sauerkraut Festival for over 20 years and  led the MVFD performance at the Ameriflora  Exhibit in Columbus (1992) to celebrate the 500th anniversary the arrival of Columbus in America.  They also performed with MVFD in Carillon park for dance exhibitions sponsored by the Dance Council and participated on Dance Council clean up days of the Pavilion.

John has had a strong influence on the group through his expert teaching and leading of folkdances.  He is often called upon to teach and review dances. He does so with energy and enthusiasm.

Throughout the years, both Carole and John have been influential in bringing expert instructors of international dance to the Miami Valley Folk Dancers.

They have opened their homes to visiting folk dancers, folk bands and folk dance instructors many times during their 34 years as members.  Both have been highly active in folk dance demonstrations with MVFD.  Since 1976, they have chaired over 15 folk dance workshops - bringing to the Miami Valley experts of dance from around the world.

For over 22 years John has been a key member of Dayton International Fair Inc. (DIFI), the sponsor of 'The World A 'Fair'.  He was the first president (1979 and 1980) of DIFI after it became incorporated and has been active in The 'World A 'Fair' since then.  He also served as chairman of the bylaws and constitution committee of the organization prior to incorporation.  He has been the chairman of DIFI entertainment since 1997.  In 2005, John was chosen as the Honorary Chairperson of The 'World A 'Fair'. Carole has been in charge of coordinating workers ticket sales for the Slavic booth at DIFI for at least 12 years.

Since 1974, John and Carole have been member leaders of the South Slavic Club (SSC) .  John has served in many positions of leadership in this organization from DIFI representative to President (an office that he presently holds).  During one of his terms as the president of the Yugoslav Club of Greater Dayton, John started the annual kolo party that has now continued for 18 years.  This is an ethnic dance party that includes an evening dance party with entirely live music performed by Balkan bands.  He also teaches a short instruction set before each of the parties so that anyone who is interested can learn to dance a few Slavic dances that evening.  However, his primary focus has been in ethnic folk dancing and choreography.  For more than 20 years, starting in 1976, John was the lead choreographer and dance teacher of SSC.  In the past 10 years he has focused on establishing co-teaching and choreography; teaching others of the dance group to lead, teach and choreograph dances.  One of his strengths is that he works toward supporting the future of any group with which he is affiliated.

Carole has performed as a dancer with the SSC for over 20 years.

John danced in all Zivio (the performing arm of the South Slavic club) performances from 1974 through 2005 and has had at least cameo appearances in the performances from 2005 to 2009.

In 1987, he and Carole arranged for Zivio to do a performance tour of Yugoslavia.  This trip included 87 Daytonians.  On two separate occasions, John planned and arranged for two joint performances for Zivio with well-known dance organizations.  One was with a Bulgarian folk dance group from Toledo and the other was with a Slovenian folk dance group from Canada.  Both events were sponsored by Cityfolk and were performed in Dayton.  More recently, John was the Chair of the SSC committee in charge of bringing the Duquesne Tamburitzans to Centerville to perform.  This committee succeeded, in cooperation with Cityfolk and the Dayton International Festival Inc., in bringing this group to the Centerville High School stage for 2 successive years (2008 & 2009).  This performance group dances, sings and plays in the folk genre at a professional level.  The members are scholarship students at Duqesne University who tour the U.S. on weekends throughout the school year.

John and Carole Pappas deserve to be recognized for their active support of the Miami Valley Folk Dancers since 1974, and their many contributions to the promotion of international folk dancing in the Dayton area.