Correspondent photo / Amanda Davis.... Loretta Ekoniak of Canfield, a 1971 Mooney graduate, has a home filled with items related to her Slovakian heritage, including cultural books, pictures, glassware, costumes and dolls. made of corn husks.

CANFIELD — If it has something to do with the Slovak culture in the Mahoning Valley, chances are Loretta Ekoniak has a hand in it.

“My husband always jokes that if it has the word ‘Slovak’ in the title, I’m somehow involved,” she said.

As president of the American Slovak Cultural Association of the Mahoning Valley, she helps to educate people and keep alive the traditions of her ancestors.

Ekoniak also is involved in the annual Vilija dinner taking place Sunday at the St. Christine Parish Hall. The event features music, basket raffles and a traditional Slovak Christmas Eve meal that includes mushroom soup, pirohy, buttered peas, fish and kolace.

An apple also is served, she said, explaining that if it’s cut horizontally and shows a star pattern inside, it represents good luck for the upcoming year.

Ekoniak and her husband, Michael, have traveled twice to Slovakia, and both have family there.

Her home, where she’s lived for 32 years, is filled with items related to her heritage, including cultural books, pictures, glassware, costumes and dolls made of corn husks.

Ekoniak has been ASCA president since 2008, but was involved in the organization for almost a decade prior. She also is auditor of Senior Branch 161 of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association and head of the heritage display at the annual Simply Slavic festival, which takes place Father’s Day weekend in downtown Youngstown.

Simply Slavic celebrates the traditions of central European countries including Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia and the Czech Republic, she said.

She’s also on the board for the Slovak Catholic Federation, a national group that meets twice yearly, and is a member of the parish council at her church, Our Lady of Sorrows, in Youngstown.

The 1971 Mooney High School graduate, who grew up in Youngstown, has three degrees and attended Youngstown State University and the University of Pittsburgh.

She spent 15 years as a medical technologist before switching gears to become an educator.

“I got tired of hospitals,” she said, explaining her father died when she was 5 and her mother decided to pursue a degree in education. “She wanted me to be a teacher, too.”

Ekoniak went back to school and took a job teaching chemistry, biology and environmental science at Poland Seminary High School, from where she retired in 2007.

She also wrote a book, published in 2011, called “Slovaks of the Greater Mahoning Valley.” She said many Slovakians in the area have family from the county of Spis, herself and her husband included.

The country is half the size of Ohio and at times, more Slovakians have lived in the Cleveland-Pittsburgh-Youngstown area than in the country itself, she said.

Opportunity is what brought them here, she continued, explaining the mills and mines in this part of the country advertised heavily in Eastern Europe to attract families.

“They wanted a better life for their kids,” she said.

The first Slovakian immigrants came to this area in 1890, and most settled here between 1900 and 1920, she said.

The Ekoniaks have traveled extensively, both domestically and abroad. Along with their trips to Slovakia, they’ve traveled to Japan, Italy, the Czech Republic and “anywhere in the U.S. that had ‘national’ in the title,” including parks and monuments, she said.

Ekoniak’s grandfather came to this country when he was 16 and wasn’t able to return for 50 years. He asked her to accompany him on his return trip in 1971 but she declined, saying she was just starting out in her career.

He went without her but died the following year, she said, “and I’ve regretted that ever since.”

Ekoniak said she’s always valued her heritage, languages and traveling — interests that were influenced by her grandfather and other family members. She hopes to be able to see Australia in her lifetime and to return to Slovakia for a third visit.

“I would love to go back at least one more time,” she said.

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