Members & Friends of the P.W.A. of A.are cordially invited to join us on Sunday, June 22, 2008 for the 110th Anniversary Gala Banquet & Scholarship Fundraiser at the Café La Cave 2777 Mannheim Rd., Des Plaines, Illinois Cocktails at 5:30 p.m. Dinner/Program at 7 p.m. Tickets are $110 per person Tables of 10 are $1000   If you will be coming from out of town and desire hotel accommodations, please contact Holiday Inn O'Hare - Reservations 5615 N. Cumberland Ave., Chicago, IL 773-332-8010 Mention that you are with Polish Women's Alliance, as we have a block of rooms reserved at the special rate of $129 for a double room, including breakfast. Rooms are limited, so please call immediately to guarantee availability. For more information on the Banquet, please call 1-888- 522-1898 ext. 206. Formal invitations will be mailed in April. We hope to have representatives from all of our Districts in attendance. Please try to join us as we celebrate this milestone in our history!

Celebrating 110 years of History!

The objectives of the Polish Women's Alliance may have been expressed in different words at different times in the past 110 years. However, four basic ideas have always defined its mission:

1. To foster a patriotic spirit in the United States of America
2. To preserve a knowledge of Polish history, language, literature, culture, and heritage.
3. To defend the honor, rights, and esteem for women of Polish background.
4. To defend the good name of Poland and of all Americans of Polish descent.

Starting with our founder, Stefania Chmielinska, and continuing under eight more National Presidents, the rich program of activities of the Polish Women's Alliance has been reported and archived in the pages of Glos Polek and has included:

- A wide variety of insurance plans and annuities
- Programs for young people including dance groups and Polish classes
- Scholarship programs for college-bound members- Assistance to needy individual members through its Fraternal Aid Fund

- Supporting Poland's fight for freedom for much of the 20th century
- Supporting a wide range of individual causes, such as the American Cancer Society, Christmas Seals, Orchard Lake Schools, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington D.C. and various institutions involved in charitable and educational work in Poland.
- Cooperating with and supporting the work of the Polish American Congress.

The above highlights are all the more remarkable when you consider society, and women's place in it, when PWA was founded in Chicago in 1898. It was a bold move; there were very few women's organizations at that time. The courage and foresight paid off, and the Polish Women's Alliance is now an important organization in the United States and has recorded many great achievements in its proud history of 110 years.

If you are ever in Chicago, stop by our offices to look at the pages of the many volumes of our bound newspapers to read that history. Last year, we also donated archives of the Glos Polek to the Newberry Library in Chicago as well as to Loyola University, where they will be available to future generations of scholars.

Niech Nasz Zwiazek Polek Zyje!