Adopt a Polish Soldier for Christmas

NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan has 15 soldiers from Poland. PoloniaSF.org received a letter from the Executive Officer to a Polish General, BG Jozef Nasiadka ( http://www.ntm-a.com/command/leadership/nasiadka?lang ) about the situation of Polish soldiers there. We read: "Unfortunately, Poland does not have a postal system that delivers packages/letters to the Soldiers and I can't imagine the Poles celebrating Christmas without one care package. [...] According to our post office, care packages must be mailed NLT 4 December 2010 in order for them to arrive in time for Christmas. Thank you for your time and assistance." All soldiers are pictured on the attached photo from their base in Afghanistan.

We are asking Polonia organizations, individuals or families to adopt a Polish soldier for Christmas. We have a list of names of soldiers along with their military U.S. postal addresses and will be coordinating the adoption process. You can be an organization, a family or several families and you may pick your soldier by his origin (if not matched yet). The soldiers birthdays and respective places of birth are:
04.07.1970
NOWY TARG
02.10.1971
MYSLOWICE
11.04.1966
KOSZALIN
27.02.1981
WARSZAWA
10.11.1976
ZIELONA GORA
06.10.1986
PIOTRKOW TRYBUNALSKI
22.12.1987
ZAGAN
15.01.1987
ZAGAN
10.11.1974
TORUN
03.05.1977
WALBRZYCH
24.01.1988
ZAGAN
13.08.1987
KOWARY
16.10.1978
RESKO
23.04.1980
SWIDNICA
one birthdate witheld
and birthplace witheld

If you have no preference, you get matched with a soldier who has not been matched yet. You need to mail a package for Christmas no later than December 4, 2010. You may include any items you wish (a suggestion list will be provided), excluding those listed by US Postal Service: http://www.usps.com/supportingourtroops/mailingrestrictions.htm Mailing a 5lb parcel is about $10 to $12 depending on your zip.

We are told that the soldiers in particular need toiletries and would like to have herring. Any small gifts will be appreciated. To adopt a soldier please send email to: poloniasfo@... We will email you the soldier's name, date and place of birth and the U.S. military address of the soldier you get matched with.

Thank you
www.PoloniaSF.org

Information from Polish Saturday School in San Francisco

Piotr Rubik - new window opens
Polish Saturday School in San Francisco extends warm welcome to all children whose parents desire is to teach them Polish. The school sessions are roughly every other Saturday - depending on other holidays. The next school session is December 4, 2010. Location is at 245 Linden Street in San Francisco. If you are interested, please call Rev. Tadeusz Rusnak for more information at 1-415-252-5799.

Polish American Congress resolution

[ the following information is by PoloniaSF.org News Network ]

On October 14, 2010, the highest governing body of the Polish American Congress, the National Directors Meeting, which was held this time in Skokie, IL voted unanimously to adopt the following resolution regarding the Smolensk April 10, 2010 Polish military plane crash:

Resolution 2
The Polish American Congress supports the Resolution H. Res. 1489 sponsored by Rep. Peter T. King of New York in the US House of Representatives, titled “Calling for an independent international investigation of the April 10, 2010, plane crash in Russia that killed Poland's president Lech Kaczynski and 95 other individuals.” The justification for such a call are fully described in the House Resolution, which has been referred to the House Foreign Relations Committee. We urge our members to contact the Committee on Foreign Affairs and demand a full investigation into this tragic event.

The information about the bill PAC is supporting is here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr111-1489

Please, write a letter, make a phone call and possibly send also a fax to your Representative and ask them to support the H.Res. 1489 and maybe even to co-sponsor the bill. We owe this to all those who perished in that crash at Smolensk airport on April 10, 2010. More information about the crash and problems with present investigation can be found here: http://bobsob.com/kaczynski.htm
A Dutch public TV film about the crash aftermath is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6bqHONRMc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iK2LQ5quSM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u68eXju_2A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-jmpBLht4


The time to contact your Representative is NOW. This session of US Congress will end January 2, 2011. If we do not act NOW the proposed resolution for the international investigation is going to die in the Foreign Relations Committee.

This might be helpful to find contacts to your Representative:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=CA - different state selection is in the left upper corner
https://writerep.house.gov


Thank you,
www.PoloniaSF.org

New poetry from local Zatoka Poezji

New poetry volume is called "A Dot" in Russian. This is how the Russians called WWII camps for people displaced from their homes and who went through the horrors of survival in the Russian far East territories. The poetry is in Polish and is available from:
Ryszard Urbaniak
743 Graymont Circle
Concord, CA 94518

More information in Polish:
Toczka (z j. rosyjskiego - kropka), tak wladze sowieckie nazywaly utworzone w latach 40-tych XX wieku, punkty dla specjalnych przesiedlenców. Jednym z takich porzuconych w Kazachskim stepie miejsc bylo Czkalowo. Skupionym wokól polskiego harcerstwa potomkom deportowanych tam Polaków poswiecamy tegoroczny tomik „Toczka” bedacym zbiorem sztuki: poetów, grafików, malarzy i fotografów.

Calkowity dochód z niego przeznaczamy na pomoc polskim harcerzom w Kazachstanie. Przylaczcie sie do nas. Wspomózcie finansowo nasza akcje. Dziekujemy!
Czeki wypisane na Polish Scouting Organization mozna przesylac na adres:
Ryszard Urbaniak
743 Graymont Circle
Concord, CA 94518

From PoloniaSF.org subscribers

Exhibit at Stanford University - "Katyn: Politics, Massacre, Morality"
http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/exhibits/57061

Map of Poland - history:
http://polmap.republika.pl/polska1.htm

Letter from Poland - (4 parts); with English subtitles on Polish or Russian narration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6bqHONRMc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iK2LQ5quSM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u68eXju_2A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-jmpBLht4

Veronika is a short documentary made in a small farming village in Poland called Kotla:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URhLeN1W-4U

From our local writer Jacek Matysiak:
http://wzzw.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/wstyd/
http://www.niepoprawni.pl/blog/1748/wstyd


Prezydent okraglego stolu:
http://wzzw.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/prezydent-okraglego-stolu/

Searching for Chopin - by SF Bay Area residents

[......]
Upon my arrival at the Frederic Chopin International Airport in Warsaw, it became very obvious to me that the International Chopin Piano Competition was probably the most prestigious music competition in the world; certainly for pianists. As soon as I exited customs into the baggage claim area, I was struck with sudden inspiration of emotion, as I found myself gazing at the massive billboard of Chopin in the lobby that took up an entire whole wall of the terminal. This is the birthplace of Chopin.

As soon as I found myself walking the streets of Warsaw, I noticed that there were Chopin posters not only on billboards, but also on the sides of buses, gates, lamp posts, and even, facades of buildings. Stores carried not only Chopin CD’s, books and music scores, but clothing, chocolates, coffee mugs, key chains, postcards, toy pianos, and expensive jewelry…

Whole article is at: http://poloniasf.org/english/article1011n01.pdf

Archive