By Yannis Paulus, M.D
The Hellenic American Professional Society of California, or HAPS, held its 34th Annual Greek Letters Day Celebration, this past February, in San Francisco, California. It was very fitting that on this day, three distinguished women were honored: AXION recipients Dr. Maria Mavroudi, Marina Velliou Moustakas and scholarship recipient Anthoula S. Vlachos. The Artoclasia and luncheon were held at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.
I served as master of ceremonies and I introduced HAPS as a group established in 1960 that is committed to promoting educational, cultural, social, and community ties among Greek-American professionals in Northern California. I also gave an overview of recent events, including a January “Vassilopita, Cocktails, and Conversation” jointly with the Hellenic Law Society, BAGABA (Bay Area Greek American Business Association), and the Center for Modern Greek at San Francisco State University; a talk by George Paganelis, Curator of the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection in Sacramento; and a wine tasting social, to name a few.
His Eminence Nikitas, Metropolitan Bishop of the Dardanelles and Director of the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, presented special letters of commendation from His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco. Greetings were also extended by His Excellency, Ambassador Ioannis Andreades, Consul General of the Republic of Greece, and the Honorable Nicolaos Theophanous, Honorary Consul of Cyprus.
George Mattis, Scholarship Chairman, presented the 2011 HAPS scholarship to Anthoula Vlachos, a senior at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is majoring in biology, serves as head of the UCSC dental club, is the head student coordinator for commencement at UCSC, and volunteers with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization of Santa Cruz County. Anthoula plans to begin dental school after completing her undergraduate studies.
Patricia Lagiss, AXION Award Co-Chair with Virginia Lagiss, introduced the AXION Award, the highest honor awarded by HAPS to people of Hellenic ancestry who must have fulfilled five criteria, including achieving high goals in his or her field of endeavor and made a significant contribution in a professional, academic, or scientific field or the humanities. Former AXION award recipients were honored, of which more than 19 were present at the event, including one of the first AXION recipients 34 years ago. The 2011 AXION award was then presented to two distinguished women in our community, Maria Mavroudi and Marina Moustakas.
After each introduction, the entire crowd of more than 150 people loudly pronounced Maria Mavroudi and Marina Moustakas “AXIA!” Dr. Leonidas Petrakis and Thanasis Maskaleris presented the AXION award to Dr. Maria Mavroudi, a distinguished scholar and innovative leader studying Byzantium and its interplay with the Arab world. Maria earned a BA in Philology from the University of Thessaloniki and a Ph.D. in Byzantine Studies from Harvard University. She is a professor of history and classics at the University of California, Berkeley, and has written a number of books and articles on Byzantium.
She has received numerous fellowships to fund her studies, including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award.
The Honorable Theodore Laliotis presented the AXION award to Marina Moustakas, a pioneering leader working for the preservation and dissemination of Greek culture. She earned a BA and did graduate studies in Sociology from the University of Oregon with a Fulbright Scholarship.
She has taught Greek language since 1962 and founded numerous Hellenic institutions in the Bay Area, including the St. Nicholas Hellenic School, the Greek Festival of San Jose, and the Hellenic Heritage Institute in San Jose, a beacon of Hellenism to the West. She is a leader who works tirelessly for the preservation of Hellenism.
To close the event, President of HAPS, I thanked the numerous people involved inmaking the event such a success, including Loula Anaston who served as chairwoman, Patricia Lagiss for serving as decorations chair, Yvonne Stamatakis who served as caterer, Jason Bezis who handled reservations, Natalie Schrik who served as photographer, Adrienne Verrios for making the programs, and the entire HAPS Executive Board for all of their assistance. Then His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas led a benediction to conclude the memorable celebration.
To join the organization or contribute to the scholarship award, you can visit HAPS online at: http://www.hapsca.org More pictures are available on the HAPS group site on facebook. You can reach HAPS President Yannis Paulus at ypaulus@stanford.edu.
