November 15, 2016
By Emily Lapinski
Students and alumni from schools and universities all over the Chicagoland area, along with their family and friends, gathered on Friday, Nov. 11 at PRL Pub in Harwood Heights to celebrate Poland’s Independence Day.
Over 150 guests filled the tightly packed venue, which included a seating area with booths and tables, a bar and a dance floor.
The event was hosted by the Dominican University Polish Club (DUPC) but was open to anyone and everyone that was down for a good time. This is the third year that DUPC hosted the event at PRL Pub and, as it has been in previous years, it was a success.
“We do the Independence Day celebration to bring together the polish clubs and in remembrance of our country’s history,” current DUPC President Ania Derkacz said. “I think polish club is unique in the sense that we work collaboratively with the other polish clubs from other universities and do these events to encourage our community to keeping our culture alive. For the first time in a long time the polish clubs aren’t in competition with each other but in a union.”
Loyola alum Konrad Szymczak said, “It’s so great to get together and celebrate our culture and independence and have a good time.”
“I love getting the chance to spend time with friends that I don’t see that often,” said Dominika Godyn, 23. “With everything going on we can take a break, dance all night, drink and just enjoy life.”
The Polish Club had a great year. They won the Prayer Program Award for the annual family mass in collaboration with university ministry, the Best Advisor Award and Best Organization Award.
“Our mid-paczki day sale and Independence Day celebration wrapped up a very busy semester, but we have more things coming next semester such as the annual family mass, the paczki day sale and pierogi sale,” Derkacz said. “We also have some collaborative events in the works that we don’t have specific details on but the polish club presence is definitely going to be seen on campus.”
lapiemil@my.dom.edu