‘Home’ for Ukrainian community to close
Bookstore rich with memories after 98 years
Joyce Sirski-Howell stands close to the Ukrainian Book Store’s countertop, holding up the massive length of white fabric as bookstore co-owner Elena Scharabun leans over the countertop and rolls it up.
The sheet of fabric is heavy, but Sirski-Howell said she needs that amount to sew costumes for 29 young dancers.
The costume co-ordinator for the Ukrainian Shumka Dancers has been coming to the bookstore at 10215 97th St. for years to buy material for dance costumes.
But ever since the bookstore announced it’s planning to close, Sirski-Howell is buying up as much as she can.
“It’s tough … another place we got it from closed. It’s a chore” to find the fabric.
Sirski-Howell is just one community member who has relied on the family-run Ukrainian Bookstore, which is closing after 98 years.
“The bookstore probably has touched just about every Ukrainian family in Edmonton, if not well beyond,” said Michael Yereniuk, who runs the store’s website. Four generations of his family have frequented the store and he’s sad to see it go.
Mother and daughter team Elena and Christina Scharabun are the third and fourth generations of their family to run the store.
“For the Ukrainian community, it’s home,” Elena said.
Local historian Ken Tingley believes the bookstore, which opened in 1914, was the first one in Edmonton. The store’s main customers were Ukrainian immigrants, who flocked to the store for its large collection of newspapers, books and music. But it was also the first stop for many immigrant families looking to find access to essential services as well as cultural refuge.
“It’s funny to see people come in from two different places out of town and run into each other at the bookstore. It reminds me of my father telling me what the bookstore used to be like, years ago, where that’s where everyone came to get their news, where they’d come to talk politics,” Elena said.
Retired University of Alberta professor Andrij Hornjatkevyc said the store contained many rare books, many of which were essential to his research.
“This place was a fantastic source of publications from Ukraine.”
Slavka Shulakewych, Alberta provincial co-ordinator for the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said she has fond memories of Elena’s father, Bohdan Melnychuk, giving her children small books as gifts.
“It was always a stop on a Saturday,” she said. “It is very sad that we won’t have that resource at all.”
The front half of the store, which Elena Scharabun said “subsidizes the back half,” sells fabric, dance costumes, CDs, gifts and the tools needed to make Pysanka, the ornate, hand-painted Ukrainian Easter eggs.
She said while the city’s Ukrainian community is still very active, the same volume of demand doesn’t exist for the books anymore.
“We say the economy, and that’s part of it ... it’s just a changing world, I find.”
Since she and Christina posted news of the closing on the store’s Facebook page Saturday, they have received phone calls from people across the country looking for items.
“People are kind of realizing that we’re not going to be around for long, so they better get what they need right now.”
The store will close for good in mid-December.