Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day from BTF!
Bridge to Turkiye Fund celebrated May 19 The Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day at the Turkish Consulate in Chicago this year with guests from all over the States.
What is May 19th?
The Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day is an annual Turkish national holiday held on May 19 to commemorate Mustafa Kemal’s landing at Samsun on May 19, 1919, which is considered the start of the Turkish War of Independence. It is celebrated by Turkish people every year with lots of joy, where Istiklal Marsi is sang, and speeches about the importance of the day and Ataturk is made.
BTF Celebrated the special holiday at the Turkish Consulate Chicago
Our consulate general Engin Turesin hosted the special day at the Consulate this year in partnership with BTF to get the Turkish community together. Informative presentations about BTF were made along with a video that our Turkish college students prepared for their BTF Youth partners to thank them.
BTF Youth, along with the University of Wisconsin — Madison, Univerity of Chicago, Northwestern, and Fine Arts Music School students also participated in the event.
BTF Youth English Empowerment program joined the event in person and via Zoom from multiple US cities and Turkish universities such as Kocaeli, Selcuk, Canakkale, and Eskisehir.
The event ended with the certificate ceremony when the consul general Engin Turesin gave the BTF certificate to BTF Youth students.
Here’s what our BTF Chicago Circle Leader Yasemin Ipek Blanton said about the special day:
Our Turkish Consulate General and distinguished guests,
We are very happy to celebrate the 19thof May Commemoration of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey. I’m Yasemin Ipek Blanton, Chicago Circle Leader for Bridge to Turkiye Fund.
On this day, we come together to honor Ataturk, remember the Turkish independence war and how that generation started the building of a modern Turkey with the ideals that Ataturk envisioned. As Bridge to Turkiye Fund, we believe that the best way to celebrate our Turkish republic holidays is to put Ataturk’s vision in action. In addition to remembering and honoring the history, we always asks ourselves — what can we do today to continue to build a modern, civilized Turkey? How can we help our country that we love from here as a Turkish American community?
As we all know, the foundation of Ataturk’s vision for Turkey is based in a modern education system. Ataturk once said “we have to be successful in national education affairs and we shall be. The liberation of a nation is only achieved through this way.”
Bridge to Turkiye Fund was formed 20 years ago in the US with this vision to help support Turkish children and youth’s education. BTF provides empowerment scholarships to university students through multiple non-profit organizations in Turkey like CYDD, Darussafaka Dernegi, Ahbab and various universities like Hacettepe, ODTU and Bogazici. We are happy to share that in 2021, the BTF Community provided 1121 scholarships to Turkish university students and helped changed the lives of 1121 students.
These students are now able to reach their full potential and complete their education through these scholarships. BTF also sends education sets to many rural schools in in Turkey. Our BTF community send 225 educational sets in 2021 to 114 schools in Turkey.
As we celebrate today, we ask all of you to also think about the actions we can take all together through volunteering, donating or coming up with new ideas to help support our Turkish Youth. Our Turkish Youth in Turkey and in the US are idealistic, hard-working and determined individuals to make a difference in the world.
As BTF, we thank everyone who participated in this event. Happy May 19 The Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day!
