May 11 Night at the Museum to focus on kolaches

by David Stone | Our Town Temple

Central Texas’ favorite pastry will be the focus of this month’s Night at the Museum, a monthly event held at the Czech Heritage Museum and Genealogy Center, located at 119 West French Avenue in downtown Temple.

Carol White, kolache baker extraordinaire and owner of Temple’s Kolache Kitchen, and Steven Beseda, CEO of Waco Pivovar, will present “The Origin and Evolution of the Kolache” during the May 11 event. Night at the Museum will start at 5 p.m., and the presentation will be at 6:30 p.m.

“If you are passionate about kolaches, this will be the place to be,” said Brian Vanicek, president of the SPJST Foundation and SPJST Fraternal Life Insurance.

“Kolaches are now super trendy,” he said. “You can find them across the state, even in some places where they’re called kolaches but have strayed from their sweet origins in the Czech lands generations ago.”

In addition to Pivovar and Kolache Kitchen, Mikeska Distributing and Woods Flowers will be providing food and beverages for the event. Future celebrations will be June 8, July 13, and August 10, and businesses interested in sponsoring a gathering should contact Vanicek at vanicek@spjst.com or 254534-2902.

“If your business, civic or cultural organization, church, or school group is working to make a positive difference in Temple, you are invited,” he said. “Likewise, if you’ve got a project or coming event to promote, this is your time to spread the word. We’ll have an open mic for you to promote your activities. We’re also inviting individuals who are engaged in the performing arts to present snippets of upcoming performances, including plays, musical performances, dance ensembles, and theatrics.”

Popular Central Texas artist Lisa Chase will be presenting a collection of 12 paintings that will be sold during an online auction that ends on June 8. Proceeds from the auction will go toward a newly created memorial scholarship in honor of Susan Chandler, the museum’s curator and director who died unexpectedly Sept. 4, 2022. The paintings can be viewed at the Czech Heritage Museum or online at https://galabid.com/spjst-foundation. —SPJST—