A true story of the power of the web:
Marshall Rotary helps Belarus with technology
Click here to read the story of the Egnatuks meet the Ignatuks
One interesting story of the interconnectedness of today's world began in 2001. By this time, the grassroots community web site AlbionMich.com was already eight years old, and the rest of the world was starting to catch up. A man named Sergei Ignatuk from Belarus (formerly part of the Soviet Union) was using search engines to look for his long lost family ancestors, and discovered the Albion Michigan Egnatuk Family in this article by Frank Passic, Albion Historian . Through email conversations it was discovered that there was indeed a family connection, and a trip was planned for the families to connect, and much more.
This article about the Egnatuk Ignatuk connection was published by the Battle Creek Enquirer in 2002.
Several years later, the trip plans grew and a good size group of Michigan travelers, including several Rotarians, traveled to Belarus, and made plans to bring computers to the city. Funds were acquired, primarily by the Rotarians, of over $40,000 just for the technology donation to Kobryn, Belarus, the home of the Ignatuk family. An article was published in the Marshall Rotary Extra in the 2004-2005 edition. Here is the story by Ron Ducheney, then President of the Marshall Rotary Club, from the Marshall Rotary Extra entitled "Egnatuks meet the Ignatuks ."
Permission to reprint this article was granted by the author. Much thanks to Albion Historical Notebook Editor Robin James for retyping this article linked above that describes the journey and outcomes of this incredible project.
Below is a pdf file suitable for print of the newspaper articles including:
"Belarus, Marshall Rotary Club's Centennial International Project 2004-2005", and
"The Egnatuks meet the Ignatuks" (see page 2).
Below are full size image files of the same articles that may be better for reading on-line. (double click to enlarge)
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4
Read about the outcomes of the Rotary technology project from a Rotary Newsletter.
Read about
how the Albion Michigan History pages
have made ripples in people's lives over the years...
(including information about Belarus,
news about the Albion Victory Merchant Ship,
and Albion's Purple Gang connection.)
