SNF Gymnasium opens as part of new community center at St. Demetrios Merrick

Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Merrick, outside of New York City on Long Island, recently built and opened a new community center, where, in honor of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s (SNF) support for the project, the athletic facilities were named for the Foundation.

SNF’s support added to grassroots enthusiasm for the project from the church community for a space that would allow the congregation to gather, hold a wide variety of activities, and host events for the wider region. Hundreds of families participated in the fundraising effort.

“SNF was deeply inspired by the groundswell of support in the community for this project,” said SNF Senior Program Officer Roula Siklas, who attended the opening of the community center. “It is the dedication, commitment, and enthusiasm of this church’s members that have made it a success, but we know it will serve as a place of joy and fellowship for a much broader swath of the Greek-American community on Long Island. We are proud to have been able to contribute to helping get it across the finish line.”

Saint Demetrios is the patron of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, and the SNF Gymnasium features a mural with iconographic representations of Thessaloniki landmarks, including its famous White Tower and, proleptically, the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki that is currently under construction as part of SNF’s Global Health Initiative (GHI).

Present at the inauguration of the new facilities were Voula Makrinou, the Greek teacher from the church at whose initiative the project sought SNF support, and members of the congregation who originally hail from Vamvakou in Greece’s Peloponnese. In that once-depopulated village, SNF is coincidentally supporting an effort to revive—albeit on a smaller scale—the same sort of vibrant community life Saint Demetrios Merrick is home to.