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PWA
Awarded Heritage Grant
PWA has been allocated
$3,260 through the Heritage Preservation CAP Program in
Washington, DC
to hire a professional
conservator to assess our artifacts and library collections.
The assessment will
be a “blueprint” for conserving these PWA artifacts,
film/sound recordings,
wood artifacts and
furniture, metalwork/metal sculpture, historic objects,
library/archival materials, photographic materials, stone
artifacts and sculpture, textiles and costume, and valuable
treasures
such as the original
letter to PWA from Madame Curie.
Vice President Sharon
Zago and Treasurer Barbara Miller will work together on
this project
to ensure its completion.
Our acceptance of
the 2007 Heritage Grant and The Conservation Assessment
Program
is the first step
in obtaining additional funding to begin the actual preservation
work. It is a
great privilege to
continue the work set forth by our dedicated PWA forebearers.
Let’s strive to
leave our PWA legacy
to our PWA children, our leaders of tomorrow.
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"Warsaw
Rising" Video Available at PWA Home Office
Komitet Oswiaty has obtained
the DVD and VHS versions of the "Warsaw Rising" documentary
and it is now available with a selection of poetry inspired by
the War to be used at your District, Council, and Group meetings.
A deposit is necessary to use the film. To reserve the film or
to obtain the poetry, please contact the office of the Vice President
at 888-522-1898 Ext. 1208. A sample poem from the collection follows.
The Girl Scout - Harcerka
When she was dying in the
hospital
she told her girlfriends she was ashamed
-after all there was a war on, she was a soldier-
she really was ashamed but could she ask
she really had never been to a party
after she died could they dress her up in the dress with lace.
When she died they dressed
her in that dress
and all four came to attention by her bed
and stood there for an hour. Anna Swirszczynska
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Our
Address!
Polish Women's
Alliance of America
6643 N. Northwest Hwy., Chicago, Illinois, 60631
The phone number
will remain 1-888-522-1898.
E-mail addresses will remain unchanged.
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Our phone numbers are the
same but please note NEW extensions!!
Please note that after our
move, the main telephone numbers have remained the same, but the
extensions are now a little different. The number "1"
has been dropped from the extensions. Please keep a copy of the
extensions listed below for your use.
These main numbers are unchanged:
Main Number 847-384-1200
Toll-free Number 888-522-1898
Fax number 847-384-1494
Web site www.pwaa.org
If you would like to reach someone in the office and you know
your party's extension, you can dial the extension number right
after you hear the "Welcome to the PWA" message.
If you do not know your party's
extension but know the name of the person you are calling, then
right after the welcome message you should press the pound sign
(#) and enter the first 4 letters of the person's last name and
you will be connected with that person.
If you are calling to take care of one of
the following business matters, please dial the extensions as
listed below
New membership and sales Bo
Padowski 228 or press 1
Billing & cash withdrawals Teresa Makowski 218 or press 2
Loans or death claims Barbara Ciepiela 227 or press 3
Accounting Wladzia Bula 216 or press 4
For the address and business hours information press 6
For all other inquires Grace Dubowski 226 or press 7
In addition to the above choices you can also contact the following
offices by dialing the extension right after the welcome message:
President, Virginia Sikora
201
Vice President, Sharon Zago 208
Secretary-Treasurer, Antoinette Trela-Vander Noot 206
Accounting, Wladzia Bula 216
Office Manager, Maryla Folmer 220
General inquires, Grace Dubowski 226
Secretary to President Sikora 201
Secretary to National Secretary 210
Editorial Office, Glos Polek 217
If the person at the selected
telephone extension is not able to answer the telephone within
4 rings, you should leave a voice mail message, clearly stating
your name and telephone number and someone will call you back
as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
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Komitet
Oswiaty Is Looking to Add PWA History Books to Community
Library Collections Nationwide
- Please join in the effort -
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Komitet Oswiaty has recently
taken on the project of finding homes for our cherished PWA history.
Available in English is the recently published history book about
our organization entitled In the Ideals of Women is the Strength
of a Nation, published in 2003 by Donald and Angela Pienkos, ISBN
0880335300, Library of Congress Control Number 2003107565.
We also have copies of previously written history books available
in the Polish language. Volume II of the History of Polish Women's
Alliance of America covers the years 1939-1959. It was written
by former editor Maria Lorys and published in 1980. Volume III
published in 1981 was written by former National President Helena
Zielinska, spanning the years 1959-1981.
If you are involved in your community library or know of a community
library that could use these books in their public circulation,
please contact Vice President Sharon Zago at 1-888-522-1898 Ext.
1208.
Let's all work together to share our rich history with as many
community libraries as possible!
PWA
Presents Archives to The Newberry Library
and is Recognized by Polish Geneaological
Society with the "Wigilia" Medal
Speakers at the Luncheon
included, from left Director Rosalie Lindberg of the Polish Genealogical
Society of America, author and Newberry Associate Grace Du Mehl,
PWA President Virginia Sikora, Jack Simpson of the Newberry Library,
PWA Treasurer Barbara Miller, and "Glos Polek" Editor
Mary Piergies.
Chicago, IL-On Thursday, September 7, 2006,
a special celebration took place at the prestigious Newberry Library
of Chicago, one of the largest private libraries in the country.
The PWA had donated a significant portion of its archives to the
library's Local and Family History Department earlier in the year,
and the luncheon marked the official presentation of PWA archives
to the Newberry Library.
During the move from the large home office in Park Ridge to smaller
quarters in Chicago, the need for a suitable space for PWA records
became very clear. The records needed to be stored and preserved
correctly, as well as catalogued and made accessible to the public,
especially to scholars and historians. The Polish Genealogical
Society of America provided assistance in this project and PWA
gratefully acknowledges their support. In addition, PWA was advised
by Mr. David A. Joens, Director of the Illinois State Archives.
After months of effort and deliberation, the Newberry Library
in Chicago was selected as the repository for the Polish Women's
Alliance records. The Library provides excellent storage, together
with professional restoration and preservation services, and their
collections are available to researchers and scholars of local
and family history from all over the world.
The celebration began with words of welcome to the assembled guests
from PWA Treasurer Barbara Miller, who was the chairperson of
this event. Her remarks were followed by a short history of Polish
Women's Alliance and how the organization started, over 100 years
ago in Chicago, by Editor of "Glos Polek" Mary Piergies.
President Virginia Sikora then delivered her remarks and officially
presented the PWA archives to Mr. Jack Simpson, Curator of the
Family and Local History Department at the New-berry. She also
gave him a copy of a photograph taken at the very first National
Convention of the PWA.
Mr. Simpson thanked the PWA for the historic donation and said
that the work on the records would begin shortly. All the insurance
applications would be catalogued and filed in acid-free folders
and the other records would also be preserved and stored. He asked
for Polish-speaking volunteers in the coming year to help with
some of the translations. The PWA records should be available
to the public in about a year's time.
The next speaker was Rosalie Lindberg, Director of the Polish
Genealogical Society who commended the PWA on making this donation
which will make family research so much easier for the thousands
of Polish Americans who are interested in discovering their family
roots. The PGSA was holding its convention in the Chicago area
and its officers and many members were present at the luncheon.
The final speaker was Grace DuMelle, an author and associate at
the Newberry. She stressed how significant the PWA archives were
because women's histories are very hard to research. Women did
not vote or own property or graduate from schools in significant
numbers or even become US citizens in their own names, so up to
the 1930s there is very little primary source material available
about their lives. The PWA records will provide a wealth of information
about women, their families, and their lives for a period in our
nation's history when very little specific historic information
is on the record. The Newberry Library and all its staff were
clearly very excited at the PWA donation. A tour of the Library
concluded the event.
PWA
IS RECOGNIZED WITH THE WIGILIA AWARD
PWA Treasurer Barbara
Miller accepts the Wigilia Award from PGSA President Mr. Edmund
Iwanski.
In recognition of PWA's donation of its
archives to a public institution where they will be more accessible
to family historians, the Polish Geneaological Society of America
presented the "Wigilia Award" to the PWA during a special
luncheon held on Saturday, September 9, 2006, in Schaumburg, IL.
The medal and award letter are posted here, www.pwaa.org/Polish_Geneaological_Society_Of_America.htm.
The luncheon included a colorful performance by the PNA Folk Dancers.
The Polish Genealogical Society was founded in 1978 and its mission
is to collect, preserve, and disseminate information on Polish
and Polish American history.
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