Cosmos FM Phidippides Award Virtual Gala

The Greek American Educational Public Information System, Inc. (GAEPIS, Inc.) and its Board of Directors are announcing the recipients of the 25th Annual Phidippides Award.  The organization is bestowing the Phidippides Award to the Hellenic Medical Society of New York to recognize their advocacy of Hellenism and their selfless service during the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s Phiddipides Award Gala will take place virtually, on February 11th, 2021, at 7 pm.

This year also marks Hellenic Public Radio’s, COSMOS FM – the GAEPIS, Inc.’s media outlet – 34th year of service, promoting and preserving our Hellenic Heritage.

The Hellenic Medical Society of New York (HMS) has its origins in the Greek-American Medical Fraternity, an organization co-founded by the renowned physician George N. Papanicolaou during the First World War and registered with the New York State authorities in 1920. It has since evolved to a society having as a mission to unite physicians and health care professionals of Hellenic heritage in an effort to foster and support medical, research, educational, and cultural programs of the highest possible standards that will enrich the quality of life of the individual and the greater New York City/TriState Area community.

Hellenic Public Radio – COSMOS FM (HPR) broadcasts under the aegis of the Greek American Educational Public Information System, Inc. (GAEPIS) – a not-for-profit media, educational organization, founded in 1987 to meet the needs of Greek Americans, serving the Hellenic-American community in all its diversity.

COSMOS FM is the only daily, bilingual non-commercial Greek radio program in the New York Metropolitan Area. It has over 5,000 supporting members and reaches over 200,000 Hellenic and non-Hellenic listeners each week. COSMOS FM provides 13 hours of programming per week for 676 annual hours of broadcasting time. It features 20-plus different programs in Greek and English, including local, national and international news; news from Greece and Cyprus; and programs on politics, science, social issues, religion, health, finance, music, the arts, sports, and community affairs, produced mainly by volunteers.

Since 1994, the Board of Directors of GAEPIS and Cosmos FM, have presented the Phidippides Award to a person or an organization in recognition of their efforts in the advocacy of Hellenism. The award was inspired by the Athenian herald named Phidippides (Ηµεροδρόµος Κήρυξ). According to Herodotus, Phidippides was dispatched by Miltiades in 490 B.C. to request the Spartans’ aid in defending Athens from the Persians, who had landed at Marathon. Phidippides is said to have accomplished an incredible feat, as he ran 200 kilometers in two days to reach Sparta.

Recipients of the Phidippides Award have dedicated themselves to sustaining Hellenism’s boundless culture, tradition, and civilization. Previous recipients of the award include Jules Dassin and the Melina Mercouri Foundation, Mikis Theodorakis, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Dimitrios and Georgia Kaloidis, Michael Cacoyiannis, John and Margo Catsimatides, Dennis Mehiel, A. S. Onassis Foundation, Prof. Edmund Keely, Senator Paul S. Sarbanes, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, Dr.John Brademas, Socrates Kokkalis, Dr. Konstantinos Papadakis, Ted Spyropoulos,  Yannis Markopoulos, Mario Frangoulis, Nikos Mouyiaris. Merkourios Angeliadis, Michael Psarros and His Emminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.