The “ORDER OF THE SMILE” is the only distinction in the world awarded to adults at the request of children themselves. It is highly prestigious because of the rare decisions made by the Warsaw Chapter, which brings together intellectuals, writers, journalists and people of the arts.
The idea of honouring adult friends with a sunny medal was born in an artwork by a sick boy staying at a sanatorium, and the first recipient of the moving award was Professor Wiktor Dega of Poznań.
The order’s presentation ceremony includes dubbing the recipient with a red rose, taking an oath and drinking a goblet of lemon juice. The witnesses and judges of the recipients’ conduct are the children themselves, who selected their favourite for the honour. Nationwide, around 200 Knights of the “Order of the Smile” are alive, while among foreign statesmen, at the request of children from Bolesławiec, the distinction was awarded, among others, to Dr Kurt Waldheim—the UN Secretary-General—in 1979 (International Year of the Child), and to Mikhail Gorbachev. Both reciprocated with warm letters and portraits bearing handwritten dedications.
It is worth knowing that no city in Poland can boast as many recipients of this sunny distinction as the town on the Bóbr. Let us recall their profiles in the briefest possible form:
EDWARD ŚWIATEK. He received the “Order of the Smile” as the first resident of Bolesławiec for his personal involvement in the effective patronage of Bolesławieckie Przedsiębiorstwo Budowlane, of which he was a long-serving director, over School No. 8.
ALFRED CHOLEWIAK, director of ZG “Konrad”. The traces of the mine’s patronage are exceptionally lasting: the “Millennium School” boasts, among other things, the only mining museum in Lower Silesia, and was also distinguished as the only educational institution in the country with an Honorary Mining Sabre by the ministry.
ZYGMUNT WYDRYCH devoted his heart to the school and children; he was a painter of wall frescoes, a designer of the décor of classrooms and corridors, and a co-creator of museums: maritime, Antarctic and mining museums, as well as the Neptune Club, a tearoom and many other unique rooms inside the building.
PAWEŁ ŚLIWKO, creator of two original schools in our town: the “four” and the “eight”. He introduced the concept of “martial education” into contemporary pedagogy and created two unique and different models of educational work.