The 2017 Bill Gichner Memorial Hammer-in is set for January 6 – 8.  The event will feature five special guests from Ukraine.  Sergiy Polubotko, Anatoliy Rudik, and Mykola Laptyuk will be the blacksmith demonstrators. Mrs. Olga Polubotko will narrate Saturday’s presentation. Mrs. Svitlana Laptyuk will conduct a culinary demonstration showcasing traditional Ukrainian cooking, assisted by Mrs. Polubotku. Mr. Polubotko is dedicated to furthering the art of blacksmithing as an organizer of the International Blacksmith Festival Sviato Kovaliv in Ivano-Frankivsk. Mr. Rudick worked with MASA member Bruce Jarrell on a University of Maryland Baltimore Student Center project featured in ABANA’s Winter 2013 issue of The Anvil’s Ring. Mr. Rudick and Dr. Jarrell demonstrated at ABANA’s 2014 Dover conference.