Sokol SF Newsletter - February 2026 | | Sokol SF Calendar of Events | | |
March 7, 2026 @ 2PM
Hike - Golden Gate Park - visiting the bust of TG Masaryk and hike through GG Park
April 26, 2026 @ 2PM
Opera Rusalka, Modesto CA
May 9 - 10, 2026
Trip to Washington DC - visit Sokol DC and CZ and EU Embassies for Open House and Tours
June 6, 2026
Picnic and Children's Day Celebration
Turtle Picnic Area at Lake Chabot
We are looking forward to seeing you at our events in 2026.
All event times listed are in Pacific Time
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Join us for a Hike in Golden Gate Park
and our annual visit to T. Masaryk's Bust
Sunday, March 7, 2025
2 pm @ Blue Heron Boathouse
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Meeting Place:
Parking lot by Blue Heron Boathouse. (used to be Stow Lake Boathouse) From there, we will go visit the Rose Garden and the bust of Tomas G Masaryk and continue with our walk.
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It is a tradition in our unit to remember T.G. Masaryk around his birthday with a hike and a visit to his bust in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. This year we will be joined by students of Czech School of California, as the students are participating in a project Československé stopy ve světě
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was a Czechoslovakian statesman, political activist, and philosopher who served as the first president of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1935. He is regarded as the founding father of Czechoslovakia.
Masaryk's birthday is March 7th. We will lay flowers at his bust in the Rose Garden.
The bust was donated to Golden Gate Park by Sokol San Francisco many years ago. Come and hear the story.
We will also visit the Observatory Deck of the de Young Museum to get a 360 degree view of the San Francisco. It is free of charge and the views are beautiful!
We will continue by the Japanese Tea Gardens back to Stow Lake, cross the Stow Lake Bridge over to visit the waterfalls, and we will end up back by the boathouse.
It is an easy hike and all flat. Hopefully, the flowers will have started blooming so we can welcome spring on this beautiful hike..
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Are you learning Czech?
Would you like more practice speaking Czech?
Chat with native speakers and other Czech learners on the Masaryk hike!
Join us as we revive our Czech knowledge and build our confidence in speaking Czech.
Students from Czech School of California will be joining us this year too!
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Rusalka Opera
April 26, 2026 at 2:00pm
The Gallo Center, Foster Family Theater
Modesto, CA
Please let us know if you are planning on attending then we could possibly arrange a get-together before or after the performance.
amwenglish1@gmail.com
If we all purchase tickets in Row N, then we can enjoy each other's company. The tickets for that row are $45.
Sokol members who let us know that they have purchased tickets and attend this performance with us will receive a $10 Starbucks gift card to make the hour drive more fun!
Rusalka is a spellbinding Czech opera by Antonín Dvořák, based in part on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. It has many similarities with the Disney variation on the story, paired with a tragic ending. The story tells the tale of a water nymph who trades her ethereal voice for a human form to win the love of a prince. When her dream turns into rejection, betrayal and tragedy follow. The opera’s most unforgettable moment is the haunting aria “Song to the Moon”, where Rusalka pleads with the moon to carry her love to the prince. With themes of forbidden love and sacrifice, paired with profoundly beautiful music, Rusalka is a dark fairy tale steeped in magic, longing, and tragedy. In Czech with English supertitles.
Join us to experience a fateful love that awakens from the depths of a forest lake.
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Visit Washington, DC during Passport DC
May 9 - 10, 2026
Take your very own shortcut to Europe and enjoy the Old Continent without any jet lag. From Ireland and Italy to Spain and Slovakia, all European Union member states participate in this annual citywide open house experience.
We are also planning a visit to the Sokol Washington DC Unit to meet their members and explore the area together. They were the first unit to bring Sokolsky Beh Republiky to the USA! Let's see what else we can learn from them :-)
We are working on details for this trip and would like to know how many people would be interested in joining us, so that we can reserve hotel rooms in the same hotel and travel together, if possible.
Current members will also have the cost of the trip subsidized by Sokol SF.
If you are interested in joining us, please let us know by sending an email to sokolsfevents@gmail.com
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We would like to say thank you! to all donors
for their financial contributions to
Sokol San Francisco in the last two years
Jan Eperjesi
Tyrov Limited
Henry Sredl
Pam Buckley
Charities Aid Foundation America
Cyber Grants SPV
Czech Talk, LLC
American Online Giving Foundation
Michelle Ruff
Paul Burda
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Annual Sokol SF Member Meeting
at Alhambra Irish House or online
Saturday, January 31, 2026
11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Our Annual Sokol SF Member Meeting will took place
at Alhambra Irish House in Redwood City
We reviewed activities from 2025, discussed plans for 2026, asked what members would like to do and how they would like to get involved, went over the financial standings & budget and then voted for the slate of officers.
Detailed recap will be published soon and available on our website at sokolsf.org
| | PETICE - Všesokolský slet na seznam nehmotného kulturního dědictví UNESCO | | | | |
Big thank you goes to all of you who have signed the petition to place Sokol Slet on the cultural heritage list of UNESCO!
Thank you Járo for all your work collecting the signatures!
Milena handed the two sheets full of our signatures to pani Bečvarová at Tyršův dům in Prague.
If you have not participated or visited Slet yet, put 2030 on your calendar!
It is an event not to be missed.
| | Czech News & Announcements | | |
Petr Loubal
1932 - 2025
Dlouholety clen Sokola San Francisco, odesel 30.8.2025, zemrel v El Cerrito v dome s pecovatelskou peci.
Narodil se 5. prosince 1932 v Praze jako Petr Schwarz , jediný syn v židovském manželství.
A jeho zivot by vydal na knihu .
Byl by to cestovatelsky roman o zemich, ve kterych kdy zil, hororovy pribeh o holocaustu, drama o ztrate domova a maminky, detektivka o uteku z CSSR, byla by to klidne i skripta o matematice na Berkeley, kde ucil, dejepisny roman o zacatcich pocitacove ery a Obcanskem Foru roku 1989 .
Byl by to zemepisny pruvodce po zemich , kde prednasel jako matematik o algoritmech.
Byl by to i nadherny milostny roman o třetí manzelce, Angličance Rosemary.
Uplne nejvic by to ale byla kniha o odvaze, laskavosti , tvrdohlavosti , humoru a schopnosti se nevzdat. Byla by plna prikladu, jak prozit naplno svuj zivot.
Petr tu moc chybi.
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A longtime member of the San Francisco Falcons, he passed away on August 30, 2025, and died in El Cerrito in a nursing home.
He was born on December 5, 1932 in Prague as Petr Schwarz, the only son of a Jewish marriage.
And he would publish his life in a book.
It would be a travel novel about the countries he once lived in, a horror story about the Holocaust, a drama about the loss of home and mother, a detective story about escaping from the ČSSR, it would also be a textbook on mathematics at Berkeley, where he taught, a historical novel about the beginnings of the computer era and the Civic Forum of 1989.
It would be a geographical guide to the countries where he lectured as a mathematician on algorithms.
It would also be a wonderful love story about his third wife, the English woman Rosemary.
But most of all, it would be a book about courage, kindness, stubbornness, humor, and the ability to never give up. It would be full of examples of how to live your life to the fullest.
Petr is sorely missed here.
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Sokol San Francisco
Czech School of California
California Czech and Slovak Club
Orinda/Tabor Sister City Foundation
will be present to inform visitors about our country and culture
and answer any questions.
Please stop by to say Ahoj!
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Photo Competition:
Czechs and America at 250
The Embassy of the Czech Republic celebrates Czech-American ties as the United States of America marks 250 years since its independence on July 4, 1776.
The Czech Embassy invites all from around the United States to submit a photo depicting this friendship and how Czechs have contributed to America at 250.
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Kořeny krajanského trampingu v Kalifornii
Už celé století se čeští a slovenští krajané v Kalifornii setkávají pod širým nebem, aby si připomněli domov, posílili přátelství a sdíleli lásku k přírodě. Tramping, který si přivezli z rodné země, se stal nejen tradicí, ale i mostem mezi generacemi emigrantů.
První společný víkendový tábor zorganizovaly rodiny Hintnausových a Litochlebových. Tábory se rychle staly velmi populárními a od roku 1970 nad nimi převzal záštitu Pacifický distrikt Amerického Sokola, tvořený jednotami Sokol LA, Sokol SF a Sokol Fresno.
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Summer Program:
Cross-Cultural Pathways for Young Leaders
Cross Cultural Pathways for Young Leaders is a 12-day, all-inclusive program in Prague, Czech Republic designed for young people aged 16-22 with Czech heritage or an interest in learning more about Czech culture, language and history and studying in CZ.
Over the course of the program, students explore the Czech Republic and dive deeply into intercultural communication and leadership, all while having fun and making new connections.
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Have You Renewed Your Sokol San Francisco
Membership Yet?
2026 membership dues are $45 and were due by December 31, 2025.
Our organization is run fully by volunteers who have their families,
jobs, and lives outside of Sokol.
Please, make it easier for them and renew on time!
Think about volunteering, too!
Thank you.
We now accept PayPal & Venmo in addition to a mailed check.
Please follow these steps to renew easily:
A) renew online via PayPal or Venmo.
Go to your PayPal or Venmo account.
Remember to include the full names of all members for whom you are sending payment in the message field. If your address, phone number, and/or email have changed, please add that information as well.
B) renew via mail
using the paper renewal form and a check made out to "Sokol SF".
Download, print, fill out the paper renewal form and mail form, and check to:
Sokol SF, P.O. Box 5252, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
BENEFITS OF SOKOL SF MEMBERSHIP:
- Event Discounts
- Preferred seating at events
- Complimentary T-shirt at our annual Sokolsky Beh Republiky in October
- Pre-registration at popular events e.g. our Christmas Caroling and winery visits
- Financial stipend to attend American &/or CZ Slets & Festivals
- Monthly newsletter
- Networking opportunities
- Access to educational & cultural programs
- Creating Czech connections
- Opportunities to practice Czech language skills
- Opportunity to earn a scholarship for the Czech School of California tuition
- Financial support toward entry fees to select events
- Lunch at our Annual Meeting
- ....and more
If you have membership questions, please email Jara Dusatko at sokolsf@gmail.com
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Sokol San Francisco is a non-profit organization operating as an independent unit of the American Sokol Organization (ASO) and its Pacific District. Sokol SF provides physical, educational, and cultural programs for all who are interested in Czech, Moravian, and Slovak culture and their history, as well as those who are bonded by a common heritage and ethnic identity.
The Sokol credo is “a sound mind in a sound body”
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