Unique Hellenic Museum Being Built in Downtown Storrs

STORRS, Conn. – The Hel­lenic Soci­ety PAIDEIA (also known as PAIDEIA) host­ed an evening of dis­cus­sion, music, danc­ing and din­ing to pro­mote and raise funds for its one-of-a-kind muse­um at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut Sat­ur­day evening.

Pro­fes­sor Ilias Toma­zos – the founder and pres­i­dent of PAIDEIA – is the dri­ving force behind the Spar­tan Museum’s con­struc­tion. He says the sto­ry of ancient Spar­ta and its famed Gen­er­al Leonidas is one of the “most beau­ti­ful chap­ters” of Greek his­to­ry and that the lega­cy con­tin­ues today.

“I’d like to tell you that for me, Ilias Toma­zos, the peo­ple of Spar­ta are not only great in the ancient peri­od, they are great also today, and I can tes­ti­fy [to] this from my own per­son­al experience.”

The muse­um will empha­size the his­to­ry of Spar­ta and of Greece’s Lacon­ian region in which the city is locat­ed. The muse­um will fea­ture a valu­able col­lec­tion of paint­ings, a stat­ue of the ancient Spar­tan gen­er­al Leonidas and a sculp­ture depict­ing the his­tor­i­cal Bat­tle of Thermopylae.

Near­ly 100 peo­ple from the Greek-Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty came on Sat­ur­day to sup­port the project.

PAIDEIA is a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that edu­cates stu­dents about Hel­lenic lan­guage and cul­ture through course­work. The orga­ni­za­tion also hosts year-round study abroad pro­grams to var­i­ous loca­tions in Greece.

Through vig­or­ous fundrais­ing efforts, Toma­zos and his orga­ni­za­tion have gar­nered sup­port for the project from many vol­un­teers and donors with­in the Greek com­mu­ni­ty – pri­mar­i­ly the Pan-Lacon­ian Fed­er­a­tion of the U.S. and Cana­da, an orga­ni­za­tion that pro­motes Lacon­ian her­itage in North America.

Fed­er­a­tion Pres­i­dent George Marafat­sos says it is a “dis­tinct hon­or” and a “priv­i­lege” for his orga­ni­za­tion to be a part of the museum’s construction.

“It’s dear to my heart because it rep­re­sents the whole of Hel­lenism. It also rep­re­sents what is good in the world… There’s noth­ing neg­a­tive in this project. That’s why I feel so proud about it.”

Toma­zos works out­side for hours almost every day – whether in the freez­ing cold or blis­ter­ing heat – to push the con­struc­tion for­ward; how­ev­er, he says he is not alone in the endeavor.

PAIDEIA Vice Pres­i­dent Chris­tos Bakes has been work­ing side-by-side with Toma­zos on projects for almost 40 years. He says that even though Toma­zos is not Spar­tan him­self, his pas­sion for the his­to­ry is unparalleled.

“Because of his extra­or­di­nary love for Spar­ta, [Toma­zos] is bet­ter than the [Spar­tans]. He believes in the his­to­ry, believes what Spar­ta offered to the world.”

Toma­zos, Bakes and many of their friends with rel­e­vant exper­tise – engi­neer­ing, plumb­ing, etc. – have been build­ing the muse­um togeth­er for more than two years. Bakes says the job is being done “with love,” and that the vol­un­teers will­ing­ly work for zero pay.

Also in atten­dance at Saturday’s cer­e­mo­ny was retired U.S. Navy Chief War­rant Offi­cer Lance Cum­mings, who served 30 years with the Navy SEALs.

Over the sum­mer, Cum­mings and a group of 20 ath­letes went to Greece to fundraise for the Navy SEAL Foun­da­tion by retrac­ing the approx­i­mate­ly 2,000-year-old foot­steps of Gen­er­al Leonidas and his 300 Spar­tan hoplites from Spar­ta to Thermopylae.

In 480 BC, Leonidas and his unit – also accom­pa­nied by 900 Greek helots – went to Ther­mopy­lae to fight against the 100,000 to 150,000 Per­sian sol­diers of Emper­or Xerx­es I that were attempt­ing to con­quer Greece.

The team trekked approx­i­mate­ly 260 miles of roads and moun­tains over the span of 8 days to arrive at the his­toric place where Leonidas and his men made their final stand.

The group includ­ed a vari­ety of indi­vid­u­als: Wound­ed War­riors (wound­ed vet­er­ans), vet­er­ans with pros­thet­ics, and a man born with­out arms and legs. Cum­mings says they raised around $200,000 for the Foundation.

Cum­mings says the jour­ney was a “life-chang­ing” event that pushed every­one beyond their lim­its and also says he com­mends the Greek peo­ple for their out­stand­ing hospitality.

“The Greek peo­ple just can’t be nicer. When you’re trav­el­ing through their coun­try­side and they’re just feed­ing you and wel­com­ing you… Every­one seems to endorse the idea of re-trac­ing those steps.”

The Spar­tan Muse­um is the last part of a four-part project at UConn that Toma­zos and PAIDEIA have been spear­head­ing for decades.

It all began in 1995 with the open­ing of the Three Hier­ar­chs Chapel – the first Greek Ortho­dox Church at an Amer­i­can state uni­ver­si­ty. Two years lat­er, PAIDEIA added the Mace­do­nia Edu­ca­tion­al Build­ing which includes class­rooms, sev­er­al offices, stu­dent meet­ing rooms, a com­mu­ni­ty hall, a library and an exhib­it hall. Most recent­ly built in 2012 is the Alexan­der the Great Amphithe­ater, the first authen­tic, clas­si­cal-styled open air the­ater in America.

PAIDEIA has com­plet­ed these projects with­in the past two decades, but the Greek pres­ence at UConn spans back to 1977, when a group of stu­dents found­ed the Hel­lenic Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion and began teach­ing lan­guage and cul­ture classes.

Asso­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent George Anas­tasas says it is “remark­able” being a part of the stu­dent group and hav­ing access to a unique cul­tur­al center.

“UConn has a lot of oth­er church­es, a lot of oth­er cul­tur­al cen­ters for oth­er com­mu­ni­ties, but none of them come close to the site we have here straight off of cam­pus [and] right next to UConn… It’s just amaz­ing that we are able to do all of this in just 30 or 40 years.”

Toma­zos encour­ages peo­ple to help fin­ish the job, as he says the muse­um and sim­i­lar projects are impor­tant for the next generation.

“Try to help us in any way you can, because, for our kids, it’s the future, and we have to do some­thing for our kids.”