The weekend of August 7 saw Soyuzivka, the Ukrainian Cultural and Heritage Center in Kerhonkson, crown its new ambassador, Melania Korenovsky, who has won the title of Miss Soyuzivka 2027.

Korenovsky is from East Haven, Connecticut. She’s a communication disorder student at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, and plans to pursue a doctoral degree in audiology. She is also a Ukrainian dance instructor and an alumnus of the Zolotyj Promin dance group for the last 11 years.

Soyuzivka (nicknamed Suzy Q) has been in the hands of the Ukrainian community since July 17, 1952. Next year, the resort will celebrate its 75th anniversary.

“I bring from my family, the love of Ukraine, a passion for helping Ukraine and dedication and commitment to keeping Soyuzivka alive and keeping it,” she said, “because I feel that every time I come here, there’s something new. And, I want to be part of that something new and especially the 75 years of Soyuzivka coming up and I’m very committed to ensuring that the 75 years is the very best that it can be.”

The position of ambassador officially starts in January, but Korenovsky said that she plans to lay a time capsule at Soyuzivka of Ukrainian items and history for future generations. “Our main purpose is keeping our culture alive, making sure that it doesn’t die, and that we keeping fighting for our freedom,” she said. “The best fight against the invaders is keeping our culture alive and keeping places like Soyuzivka alive to ensure that Ukrainians have a place to be Ukrainian.”

Korenovsky’s parents are immigrants. Her mother, Nataliya is from Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine, and her father, Vladimir, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her sister, Stefanie, was a former Miss Soyuzivka. It is a family affair with its connections to Soyuzivka.

“I have cousins in Lviv, and they are my age,” she said. “One of them is a few years younger than me, but I keep in contact with her. She is sending me a video of her favorite places in Lviv that were destroyed by a bomb. And, it breaks my heart every time that I talk to her. She has all these dreams of becoming a producer and the theatre. It breaks my heart that she can’t fully go for her dream.”

Stephen Barankewicz, Managing Director of Soyuzivka, described the position as “someone who can be representative of the youth.” He said that the Miss Soyuzivka job is one that he has been “rebranding, rebuilding, and redefining since I came onboard to bring it up to a modern-day interpretation.”

Soyuzivka is owned by the Ukrainian National Association. Roman Hirniak has been president and CEO since 2022.

“Every year, we have a new Miss Soyuzivka and some of them have been very good at playing that role of ambassador,” Hirniak said. “But, in order for this to be viable enterprise for years to come, we have to essentially line up for the next generation of the leaders to be.”