Slovak American Cultural Center

SACC

The Slovak American Cultural Center (S-ACC) was founded in 1967 in New York City as a not-for-profit organization to pursue the following goals:

To preserve Slovak heritage in the United States for the Slovak American community.
To promote Slovak cultural, scientific, and athletic activities at home and abroad.
To familiarize the American public with Slovak culture, history, and current events in Slovak life.
To publicly recognize and promote the achievements of Slovak Americans in the United States and abroad.

The founders of S-ACC were Slovak immigrants who came to the US to escape political persecution after the Second World War. Many of them settled in the New York metropolitan area and immediately set out on a rich program of lectures, seminars, concerts, and other cultural events. These activities gave Slovaks in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut the opportunity to socialize and to study, enjoy, and preserve, as well as further develop, their rich cultural heritage.

Since 1993, S-ACC has organized annual Slovak Balls, and used them as an opportunity to recognize and honor people of Slovak origin for their significant achievements.

To learn more about S-ACC, and to donate, click here.

Slovakia’s Longest Serving UN Ambassador

SACC congratulates Michal Mlynár who has given Slovakia a signiﬁcant voice on the international stage as Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the United Nations since 2017. Ambassador Mlynar will now serve as UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and to Nairobi, Kenya, at one of the four UN headquarters.

Below are some photos from this event on March 31, 2023:

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About Vanessa O’Brien

Vanessa O’Brien is a British female mountaineer and an American female mountaineer (as a result of her dual nationality), explorer, aquanaut, astronaut, author, and public speaker.

Her story of overcoming adversity and transformation unfolds in her book, To The Greatest Heights: Facing Danger, Finding Humility and Climbing A Mountain of Truth, Simon and Schuster (2021), described by many readers as one the most honest and riveting adventure autobiographies ever written.

Vanessa has an incredible six Guinness World Records: Only, First, Fastest, Deepest, Farthest and Oldest. Vanessa is the only woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air (the Explorers' Extreme Trifecta) following her mission on Blue Origin's NS-22 to 107km. Vanessa was the first woman to reach earth’s highest and lowest points, (Mt. Everest 8,848m) and (Challenger Deep 10,925m), with the latter being deeper than Mt. Everest is tall. She is the fastest woman to climb the Seven Summits in 295 days, and the first person to reach nearest to and farthest from the earth's core (Challenger Deep and the summit of Chimborazo.)

Vanessa is the first woman to complete the Four Poles Challenge, going the farthest north * south * east * west from the top of Everest to the bottom of Challenger Deep to skiing the last degree to the geographic North and South Poles. She holds the record for the oldest woman to summit K2, the second tallest peak, at 52 years old.

Vanessa became the first American or British woman to successfully summit K2, receiving Explorer of the Year by the Scientific Exploration Society (SES) in 2018. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Honorary Advisory Board member of the SES.

Vanessa summitted the highest peak on every continent, receiving a Guinness World Record for the fastest time a woman first achieved this goal (295 days.) Vanessa has skied the last 111 km to the north and south poles completing the Explorers Grand Slam in 11 months, the first woman to do so in under a year, and the 8th woman in the world. Vanessa ran the Boston Marathon in 2017, helping to raise money for the American Red Cross, has been shot testing bulletproof vests with a .38 long revolver at point blank range, and rode 200 mph with Mario Andretti at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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