The grounds crew was still dragging the infield at Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox baseball players were loosening their arms in the outfield when outside the gates hundreds of fans were lining up for the annual Greek Heritage Night on June 2. Greek dancers were adjusting their costumes, with church groups filing in from buses parked along the old Yawkey Way street.
John Mokas had been walking those same gates for the better part of an hour. As chairperson of the Greek Heritage Night for the first time, he was checking the food stations, tracking down committee members, running through the evening’s logistics: the dancers, the honorees, the pregame ceremony, the roughly 1,600 people who had bought tickets, and, in many cases, came from parishes across New England to be there. “It’s a milestone,” Mokas said of the event. “Not everyone gets there.”
Greek Heritage Night at Fenway Park celebrated its ninth year under the Alpha Omega Council, a Boston-based Greek-American nonprofit. Since its founding in 1976, the Alpha Omega Council has contributed more than $2 million to philanthropic causes across New England. What began as an initiative by the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) – one of the largest Greek-American organizations in the country – has become one of the largest annual gatherings of the Greek diaspora in New England. This year held additional significance: The event marked the start of the Alpha Omega Council’s 50th anniversary calendar, a milestone five decades in the making.
