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EN
‘They carried Slovakia in their hearts’: US donor funds statue to emigrants in northern Slovakia
['Petit Press', 'Compiled Spectator Staff']
The Slovak Spectator
In Habovka, a small village in the Orava region of northern Slovakia, a new bronze sculpture now stands in the garden of the local Catholic church.
The initiative came from Thomas Klimek Ward, an American historian and former Slovak honorary consul in Illinois, whose great-grandparents were among the first emigrants from the valley.
They donated land for the town’s Slovak church, but Jozef was later killed in a railway accident.
Although raised in Illinois, Ward was acutely aware of his roots.
The statue will be blessed on 28 September, with a Mass dedicated to emigrants from the two villages.
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'slovakia'
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'habovka'
'slovak'
'later'
'travellers'
'work'
'emigrants'
'ward'
'funds'
'orava']