November 1, 2025

Join us for a hike at Briones Reservoir

November 9, 2025

Ode to Joy: European CineFest San Francisco 2025 | I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Czech Republic)

December 7, 2025

Hands-On Christmas Cookie Baking Workshops at Orinda Community Center

Registration is open!

January 31, 2026

Annual meeting

All event times listed are in Pacific Time

Sokol San Francisco Monthly Hikes

Briones Reservoir

Saturday November 1, 2025 @ 10 am

Join us tomorrow for a hike at Briones Reservoir.

This will be about 3 mile in an out hike.

This is a moderate hike, the trail is mostly shaded by trees with some beautiful views of the lake. The forecast for tomorrow is beautiful!

No worries if you look at the link of Briones Reservoir info! We will not hike the whole 13 miles loop around the lake but should you desire to do that, you can!

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Dogs can come too :-) Parking is free.

We will meet at the Briones Overlook Staging Area at 10 am

Meeting place Briones reservoir info

 The European Union Office in San Francisco

and EU Member States Consulates - General

cordially invite you to

🎬 Ode to Joy: European CineFest San Francisco 2025 

Join us for the first-ever European Film Festival in San Francisco — a three-day celebration of Europe’s vibrant cinema, creativity, and cultural diversity.

Organized by the EU Office in San Francisco, in partnership with European Consulates and Cultural Institutes, Ode to Joy brings together nine exceptional films from across the continent, showcasing stories, emotions, and artistic voices that resonate in Europe today.

 When: Friday–Sunday, November 7–9, 2025

Where: INNOVIT, Alliance Française, and Delancey Street Screening Room

Festival Programme

Friday, November 7 – INNOVIT

5:30 PM | Diamanti (Italy)

Saturday, November 8 – Alliance Française & INNOVIT

11:30 AM | Becoming Astrid (Sweden) – Alliance Française

2:00 PM | Les Choristes (France) – Alliance Française

6:30 PM | Southern Chronicles (Lithuania) – INNOVIT

Sunday, November 9 – Delancey Street Screening Room

12:00 PM | Flow (Latvia)

2:00 PM | Tove (Finland)

4:00 PM | Listen to the Land Speak (Ireland)

5:30 PM | Two to one (Germany)

7:30 PM | I’m Not Everything I Want to Be (Czech Republic)

Free and open to all upon registration!

For more information and reservations, please see the link below.

Reservations are required to attend the screenings.

Hands-On Christmas Cookie Baking

and Decorating Classes

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Two sessions offered @ 1:30pm & 3:00pm

Orinda Community Center

There will be two one-hour sessions.

Both sessions are suitable for kids, but parents must be there with their children:

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Orinda Community Center

28 Orinda Way, Orinda CA

Please make sure you register for the time you want to attend.

• Class is suitable for children, but parents must be there with them.

• Please register every person who will be attending.

• If your plans change, please let us know; space is limited, so that somebody else can go! sokolsfevents@gmail.com



We will work with traditional Czech Christmas cookies, like linecké cookies, gingerbread cookies, and vanilkové rohlíčky cookies.

Everyone will leave with baked goodies and in a festive mood!

Wear comfortable clothing which you do not mind

getting some flour, sugar, or frosting on :-)

Please plan to arrive 10 minutes before the beginning of class so we can start the class on time! Thank you.

Suggested donation is $10 per person.

CASH preferred.

PayPal or Venmo will also be accepted and appreciated.

NOTE: we will also be working with nuts.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE REGISTERING FOR THE TIME SLOT

YOU WANT TO ATTEND

Have You Renewed Your Sokol San Francisco

Membership Yet?

2026 membership dues are $45 and are due by December 31, 2025.

Sokol SF members who pay by 11/30/2025 will be entered into a drawing for $10 Starbucks gift card! Five lucky winner will be drawn!

Drawing will be held at our Annual Meeting.

The date and location of our Annual meeting are yet to be determined.

Our organization is run fully by volunteers with their families, jobs, and lives.

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.

• Send your payment recipient on Paypal: sokolsfpay@gmail.com
• Send your payment recipient on Venmo: @Sokol-SF

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
• Pre-registration at popular events e.g. our Christmas caroling event 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

Recap of Our Past Events

Harvest Dinner and Dance

Saturday, October 4, 2025



We enjoyed an evening of reconnecting and conversing with Czech and Slovak friends, were served a delicious buffet-style dinner with steak, salmon, salads and desserts. We were treated to a classical guitar music and song performance, cultural and poetry presentations by children from the Czech School and then dances the rest of the evening to a live band!

A huge thank you to Helenka Livingston and family to organizing and MC-ing the event. She has been our lead for these events for many years.

Thank you, Helenko, for your all your work planning and organizing this event! A lot of volunteer work goes into planning an evening of fun for everyone and all your efforts over the years and your dedication to Sokol San Francisco have been greatly appreciated.

Here is Helenka's recap:

Sokol SF welcomed Autumn with a festive Harvest Dinner Dance at the Crowne Plaza in Foster City on October 4^th. The evening started off with performances from the Czech School of CA with the “Broucky” young children singing and reciting Czech nursery rhymes. Followed by a guitar duet by Marketa Monserud and Barbora Brehovska. The buffet dinner was delicious and plentiful including baked Salmon and Grilled Steak. The Groove Doctors with their eight piece band provided lively music for dancing the night away. We were delighted when we saw everyone up on the dance floor for the Snake Dance which lead right into the Chicken Dance leaving us all breathless. 

And during our final music break our raffle made many happy guests feel very lucky as they left with fun prizes and even some with Czech roots.

All in all it was a fun evening ending an era of the Sokol SF Dinner Dances. 

View the Photo and Video Gallery of the Event

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8m4N7ueZCyUJwLPq8

Sokolský Běh Republiky and Family Picnic

Sunday, October 26, 2025

A huge thank you goes to all the volunteers from

the Czech School of California who made this year's event possible!

View Photo Gallery of the Event

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xGm2JuoWqSRVko596

Anna Cookova, the ASO Education Director from Wisconsin won a 1st prize in our rhyme challenge. She came to join us at our Sokolsky beh republiky to receive her prize.

In the link is her story about visiting the Bay Area and Sokol San Francisco.

Dear Slovaks and Czechs of California,



We are delighted to invite you from the heart to our family’s PolkaFest - A Celebration of Czech, Moravian and Slovak Culture and Folklore at LaMargarita Ranch in Santa Margarita, California on Sunday, 23 November 2025.

LaMargarita Ranch  is our private family ranch located in the beautiful countryside of San Luis Obispo County in the Paso Robles/San Luis Obispo area. 

The full address will be provided upon registering.

Use the QR code in the flyer to purchase tickets to the private EventBrite invitation. 

A few words about our family and the motivation for this occasion:

I was born in Canada into a dynamic Czechoslovak emigrant family.  My father, Štefan, was born in Košice in 1940 and emigrated to Canada in 1968.  He met my mother, Anka, a Canadian/Slovak endocrinologist at Sts Cyril and Metod Slovak Catholic Church in Toronto in the early 1970s.  My maternal grandparents, Otakar and Anka (Širek), met during medical school in Bratislava in the 1940s prior to emigrating to Canada in 1950. 

Since my birth, my parents, grandparents, and extended family in North America and Europe transmitted to me a deep love and pride of my Slovak culture and identity.  I have very fond memories of attending the annual Odpust at the Slovak Mission of Our Lady of Seven Dolors in Cambridge, Ontario.  This mission property, owned and operated by the Slovak Jesuits, was a focal point and community base for immigrant Slovaks and Czechs living throughout Canada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and Wisconsin.  Throughout the year there were  numerous parties, celebrations, dances and picnics that I remember fondly.  

As a teenager, I spent summer holidays with my cousins in the villages near Košice, Stará Ľubovňa, and Bratislava.  In 1992, I attended the World Festival for Slovak Youth in Martin, Slovakia.  To this day, I remember how amazing the live folk-music was.  Another cousin introduced me to Prague. Those times with my cousins were some of the best times of my life where I felt at home and alive!

Finally, as a university student in Montréal, Québec in the 1990s, I danced with Širava, a folkdance group comprised of Slovaks, Czechs and Québecers who loved our shared culture.  I have wonderful memories of our practices on Friday nights, as well as our performances and road trips to events in the US and Canada.

In view of these privileged experiences and upbringing, I feel a desire to live out and celebrate our beautiful shared culture and folklore. In these modern times in America I am so proud and grateful for my Slovak heritage.  Further, I would say that a love of internationalism defines me and my family.  My wife Patricia is from Guadalajara, Mexico; our beloved children Jan, Ivana, and Nataša are truly global citizens.  We strive to live out and keep the goodness of what our fathers and forefathers gave us. 

So, this is the motivation for PolkaFest: to celebrate and create a new and lasting experience on the canvas of our rich cultural heritage at LaMargarita Ranch.  We hope you can join us for what promises to be a wonderful day!

Warmly,

Jan & Patricia Eperješi with family

Česká škola v Kalifornii:

Ostrov češtiny uprostřed Silicon Valley

V srdci severní Kalifornie, v oblasti známé jako Bay Area, kde se mísí technologické inovace s multikulturním prostředím, existuje místo, které si klade za cíl uchovat český jazyk, kulturu a tradice - Česká škola v Kalifornii. Založena v květnu roku 2012 Ivou Crookston za asistence M. Žučkové , škola dnes vzdělává mezi 70 až 80 dětmi a nabízí výuku od batolat až po deváťáky. A nejen to - díky smlouvě s českým Ministerstvem školství mohou žáci získat i české vysvědčení. Hostem podcastu je Markéta Monserud, která se do Kalifornie nedávno přistěhovala.

Jedním z unikátů školy je její široký záběr. Výuka začíná u nejmenších dětí od 18 měsíců, které navštěvují třídu „Sluníček“ společně se svými rodiči. „Je krásné sledovat, jak se rodiče - často rodilí Američané - učí česky spolu se svými dětmi,“ říká Markéta Monserud, učitelka, která se do Kalifornie přestěhovala z Idaha. „Zpíváme české písničky, čteme říkadla, a rodiče se aktivně zapojují. Často se ptají na slovní zásobu, zapisují si výrazy na tabuli a doma je pak procvičují.“

Rebel s modrými houslemi: Pavel Šporcl na americkém turné

„Rebel with Blue Violin“ není jen název hudebního alba, ale také titul amerického turné houslového virtuóza Pavla Šporcla, který na podzim vystupuje v krajanských centrech napříč Severní Amerikou – od pobřeží k pobřeží.

Pomozte nám dostat Sokolský Slet na seznam nehmotného kulturního dědictví UNESCO

Všesokolský slet je událost, která nemá ve světě obdoby. Jednou za šest let je sportovně-kulturní akcí roku v Česku. V posledních letech se jí účastní desetitisíce sokolů a přes 100 tisíc návštěvníků (z Česka i zahraničí). Slet je fenomén, tak jedinečný, že je potřeba ho chránit a šířit jeho popularitu. K tomu nám pomůže i to, když se dostane na seznam UNESCO. 

The All-Sokol Festival is an event that has no parallel in the world. It is held once every six years and is the sports and cultural event of the year in the Czech Republic. In recent years, tens of thousands of Sokols and over 100 thousand visitors (from the Czech Republic and abroad) have participated in it. The festival is a phenomenon so unique that it needs to be protected and its popularity spread. It will also help us if it is included in the UNESCO list.

Share Your Outdoor and other Ideas with Us

Lead a Hike, Suggest an Event, Spark an Idea

Your vision could inspire others and create unforgettable memories. Simply reach out to us at sokolsfevents@gmail.com, and let’s make it happen!

Additionally, if you have any other exciting ideas for events that could bring our Czech American community together, we want to know!



Your creativity and leadership could spark a wave of enthusiasm and connection - let’s transform this moment into something extraordinary!