The following is an article as published in issue 9 (May-June 2002) of Meltho.

          Several members of the Syriac Orthodox Church have formed a Youth group aimed at gathering together the Syriac Youth of Melbourne.  We hope that through regular social events and functions we will meet and get to know other youth between 17 and 25 years of age in a fun and relaxed environment.

          On March 10^th we held a very successful cake stall at St. Aphrem’s Church in order to raise funds for our first event, a free BBQ that took place at Bundoora Park on Sunday 24^th March.  A glorious, warm and sunny day helped make our barbeque a success, with around 40 people turning up, although we would have liked to see more people come along and join us.  It was great to meet and get to know other people in our age group, and of a similar background.

          Commencing at 1pm the food rolled out, with sausages, beef patties, and veggie patties served alongside a large combination of delicious salads to choose from.  Keeping things in tune was a variety of music (thanks Chris). Everyone intermingled, getting to know each other during lunch, before working it all off in a massive, yet exciting game of soccer, and who can forget the water fight that broke loose, immediately after lunch?

          We would like to thank all the youth who attended the barbeque, we hope to see you at our future events and don’t forget to spread the word about SOYGOM to all your friends and relatives. For those of you who didn’t attend, we hope to meet you at our next event, SOYGOM functions are a great way to get to know other people in our community and make new friends. If you have any ideas, suggestions or would like more information please contact us on soygom@hotmail.com.