On Saturday, May 31, the annual children’s party of the Polish-Slavic Center took place in the auditorium at 176 Java Street. Several hundred people took part in the event on the occasion of International Children’s Day.
The balls for the youngest organized by the Polish-Slavic Center have a long tradition. The authorities and employees of this largest socio-cultural Polish organization on the East Coast managed to create an exceptional event, each time impressive in its scope and inventiveness. An event where Poles and Americans show up with their entire families and where all participants, both children and adults, leave smiling and happy. It was no different this year.
Agnieszka Granatowska, the executive director of the Polish-Slavic Center, and director Bożena Konkiel from the Board of Directors of this institution welcomed the gathered guests and everyone present at the beginning of the event. The Polish authorities were represented by: Deputy Consul General Przemysław Postolski and Vice Consul Krzysztof Płaski, who appeared on site with his family. The event was jointly hosted by Susan Smolaga, Miss PSC 2024, and Julia Greer, Miss CPS 2025.
This year, as always, the authorities and employees of the Center organized many attractions and surprises for the children. There were numerous games, competitions, dances and fun activities led by the employees of Kids Fun House and DJ Daniel Bernatowicz, who also took care of the music during the event. Among other things, a special magician’s show, a bouncy castle and slides, colorful balloons, face painting stations and a “sweet bar” with many sweets were prepared for the children. For everyone, delicious specialties of Polish cuisine were prepared by cooks from the Krakus Senior Club. Danuta Holiczko, Lidia Laszko and Lucyna Fornal. Throughout the afternoon, well-known characters from popular fairy tales and cartoons played with the children. At the end of the joint fun, there was a raffle with many great prizes, which were provided by sponsors. During the event, Krzysztof Zacharow, a famous teacher and artist who has been cooperating with the Center for years, invited all children to the exhibition “Little Picasso”.
During the event, the Center’s authorities thanked all employees of this institution who showed up on the spot as volunteers that day, donning fancy costumes due to the circumstances. In addition to the previously mentioned cooks, these were: Bożena Mazinksa – Director of the CPS Immigration Program and Dorota Pastula (selling lottery and attraction tickets), Beata Pesantez – Assistant to the Executive Director (disguised as a fortune teller, she sold lottery tickets), Liliana Hendriksen (social worker serving the sweet bar), Igor Wieczorkowski – Financial Director (disguised as Batman, he assisted with the bouncy castle), Agnieszka Kukułka – Director of the JP2 Program (supervised the distribution of hot meals), Agata Forys – social worker from the Krakus Senior Club (assisted in making balloons), Ewa Węglarz (as a volunteer, she painted children’s faces), Stanisław Cebula and Adam Targowski (as cowboys, they kept order in the room). I am extremely happy that once again our organization was visited by such a large group of children with their parents – said Agnieszka Granatowska, executive director of the Polish-Slavic Center and organizer of the Children’s Day at CPS, among others, after the event. Everyone was in a good mood and everyone could feel like a child throughout the fun. I would like to thank all the CPS employees who, in beautiful fairy-tale costumes, contributed to the success of the Children’s Day. I also extend my regards to the sponsors and to the Board of Directors of the Center, which every year entrusts us with organizing this wonderful event. The large turnout during this event shows that the local community needs such initiatives. A great success for us is the fact that during this year’s Children’s Day we hosted Deputy Consul General Przemysław Postolski and Vice Consul Krzysztof Płaski with his entire family under our roof. It should be added that last Saturday at CPS there were two events at the same time: Children’s Day and the elections for the President of Poland took place at 177 Kent. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the CPS employees who agreed to dress up in fabulous costumes on this magical day.
Organizing Children’s Day on such a grand scale would not have been possible without the support of numerous sponsors. This year, they included the following companies and institutions: Kids Fun House, Arthur’s Funeral Chapels, Inc, Broadway Stages, Sokol Law Group, P.C., Digital Security Communications, Aldona Fire Protection, Inc, Polish Slavic Federal Credit Union, and the Polish Slavic Center.
The Polish Slavic Center was founded over 50 years ago and has been promoting Polish culture in New York City and providing legal and social services to the Polish community and local communities ever since. Despite demographic changes, the CPS has about 30,000 members and is currently the largest socio-cultural Polish organization on the East Coast.
