Last summer the Zalucky connection to Poland resulted in a visit to the Boothbay peninsula by 19-year-old Karolina Lukaszewicz of Warsaw, Poland who, almost immediately, felt herself at home in the local community. During her six weeks on the peninsula she made the most of her Maine lifestyle experiences and fostered several friendships. She even became a familiar face to several members of the Boothbay Region Garden Club and when it came time for her return to Poland, she began to think about the community service project she had pledged to design as an adjunct to her first semester work at the University of Warsaw. Her awareness of some of the work of BRGC lead her to decide on a project based on the aspect of the Festival of Trees which distributes trees decorated by community members and children's groups to deserving families in time for Christmas

Over the few short months remaining before the holidays, Karolina, between September and December, managed to assemble a team of friends and community sponsors to design and carry out a successful and very special Festival of Trees - Warsaw style.

The following is in her own words in an email to me:

"First of all, we decided to organize a Christmas Concert (the proceeds of which were passed on to Christmas tree project) in my high school. I couldn't have found a better place! Of course, something like Opera House would be the best, but we don't have such place in Warsaw and my high school had everything that needed: a large hall, nice stage and wonderful people who helped me a lot.

"Our version of your Festival was called "Urwij się z choinki," which in Polish is something like a phrasal verb and means more or less "let's do something unexpected" and the word "choinka" means "Christmas tree," so it was a funny and catchy name for our project. In my team I had 6 of my friends, but I received a huge help from my younger colleagues who are still in high school. BTW, teachers and the headmaster also helped me a lot (I just love my high school!). Students from my mum's school prepared beautiful Christmas decorations (I wish I could give you some of them, you would love them). We also decided to cooperate with a printing house, Warsaw newspaper, the seller of Christmas trees and the radio station from my university - we've done a lot to promote our project and to gain many partners. The most important partner was the foundation called ONICO - they sponsored organizational expenses and donated 25 packages of sweets. The project has grown more than I expected!

"Finally, the day of the concert came. We decorated school a day before, so that on Saturday it looked magical. We also organized a bazaar of Christmas decorations and the lottery. On our stage occurred one singer, one cabaret team and one comedian performing stand up. We collected 1.000 zlotys (about 240 USD) and packages from the foundation which were worth 1.370 zlotys (about 330 USD). With this money we were able to buy 9 Christmas trees for 9 families and also buy some lights for them. All of them were given a tree, lights, sweets and Christmas decorations made by children. Each family was very poor and very, very happy to have received so many gifts. That was an amazing experience for us :) and also very difficult to plan, because each family lives on the other end of the city and only 3 of us have cars, but we managed to do it on time.

Thank you one more time for giving me the idea of my own version of your festival. I was telling everybody (also during an interview on the radio and in the newspaper) that it's all because of you and the American (BRGC) Festival of Trees :)"

The work of the Boothbay Region Garden Club touches many lives in many ways. Learn more about our local Boothbay Region Garden Club at www.boothbayregiongardenclub.org. The BRGC is affiliated with NGC (National Garden Clubs Inc.) and is a member of the GCFM (Garden Club Federation of Maine).