WHAT IS NACHO?
In
1991 President Bush proclaimed November 16th as Dutch American
Heritage Day to commemorate the day in 1776 when the Netherlands were the first
country to officially salute the flag of newly independent United States of
America.
In September 2004 Heny Neys,
Mariska Henneberque and Al Koppen-Drayer discussed the possibility of forming an
organization to celebrate Dutch American Heritage Day. They came together and applied for a
new non-profit, tax-exempt organization, and named the organization: Netherlands
American Cultural & Heritage Organization (NACHO
for short). The new organization with Henny Neys, president, Daniel Hill,
vice-president, Al Koppen-Drayer, secretary/treasurer and Mariska Henneberque,
event coordinator, was approved by the government and we started with our first
event, the Dutch American Heritage Day on the Saturday closest to November 16th.
NACHO planned to organize some
other events as well and we also revived some of the activities from other
organization that had folded in the last few years.
The first Sunday in December
we have a “Sinterklaas” party for children under 10 years old in the Berkeley
Marina. In the middle of December
we organize a Christmas tea-dansant, sing-along afternoon. Just before Christmas, together with
the Netherlands America University League (NAUL) in California, we organize the
yearly Dutch language Christmas service in Lafayette, California.
Early in January we celebrate
the New Year with an “oliebollenavond” and in February we celebrate carnival
with prizes for the best and funniest costumes.
In May we organize a Dutch
Indisch Heritage Day and go through our wardrobes and dress up either in
traditional Indonesian or Dutch dress.
The months of June, July and
August we take time to rest and think about all the fun things we are going to
do in the future.
The last Sunday in September
we have a very special “Leiden’s Ontzet” celebration in Walnut Creek,
California with herring flown in freshly from the Netherlands.
And in November, we start our
program all over again.
Regularly during the year, we
have an “instuif” (open house party), a place where the Dutch community and
their friends can get together to talk, dance, play cards, watch movies
etc. The “instuifs” are held in
Walnut Creek.
NACHO is a private
organization dedicated to uniting people of Dutch descent and their friends
from all over the San Francisco Bay Area.
We are not a membership organization.
If you have any questions,
feel free to contact anyone of the following committee members:
Henny Neys at (925) 939-7128;
e-mail: hennyneys@sbcglobal.net or
Daniel Hill at danielhill@pacbell.net.or
Mariska Henneberque at (510)
851-4635; e-mail: Mariskanal@yahoo.com or
send correspondence to Al
Koppen-Drayer, Secretary/Treasurer NACHO
3950 Monterey Boulevard, San
Leandro, CA 94578