On Thursday, January 8, the district stage of the “Getting to Know Our Homeland” sightseeing competition was summed up in the conference room of the Bolesławiec District Office. Twenty-eight entries were submitted for this year’s edition. Here are the names of the winners in the individual categories:

  • in the category of primary schools – individual entries
  1. Marta Parada (Primary School No. 4) for “The Story of My Great-Grandparents”
  2. Michał Baber (Primary School in Nowogrodziec) for “The History of My Family, Traditions and Customs from the End of the 19th Century to the Present Day” and Dagmara Parchimowicz (Primary School No. 1) for “My Family’s Siberia”
  3. Hubert Burdzy for “The Story of My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Andrzej Pronobis” and Marek Drąg for “Nowogrodziec – Then and Now” (both winners are students of the Primary School in Nowogrodziec)
in the category of primary schools – team entries
  1. Krzysztof Kołodenny and Dawid Potocki (Primary School in Żeliszów) for “How we conquered Grodziec Castle”
in the category of lower-secondary schools – individual entries
  1. Adrian Drąg (Primary School in Nowogrodziec) for “The History of St. Mary Magdalene’s Monastery in Nowogrodziec”
in the category of lower-secondary schools – team entries
  1. Marta Bigos and Adrianna Dereszyńska (Lower-Secondary School No. 4) for “Bolesławiec Then and Now”
Nagrody wręczali: Stanisław Chwojnicki, Anna Bober-Tubaj i Eugeniusz Kowalski (od lewej)Nagrody wręczali: Stanisław Chwojnicki, Anna Bober-Tubaj i Eugeniusz Kowalski (od lewej) • Gerard Augustyn

In the individual-entries category, a distinction was awarded to Dominika Stefańczyk (Private Lower-Secondary School No. 2) for “Grandparents’ Memories,” while in the multimedia-entries category, distinctions went to Sylwia Skorupa for “Dąbrowa Bolesławiecka. My Little Homeland” and Paulina Śledzińska for “Getting to Know My Homeland” (both are students of Lower-Secondary School No. 4).

Dominika Stefańczyk i Adrian DrągDominika Stefańczyk i Adrian Drąg • Gerard Augustyn

“I wrote about the history of my great-grandparents, about how they lived in Ukraine and how they returned to Poland,” Marta Parada, the first-place winner in the primary-school category, told the IstotneInformacje.pl portal. The winner began collecting materials in August last year. She then went to Ukraine, where she visited the place where her grandmother was born. “I learned a great deal about my family,” she adds.

Gerard Augustyn
Gerard Augustyn

“I am full of admiration for these works,” says Zdzisław Abramowicz, a member of the competition committee and an expert on Bolesławiec’s history. – “These young people did something incredible – they managed to reach sources and historical materials, and they were able to present them beautifully.” In the juror’s opinion, thanks to the “Getting to Know Our Homeland” competition, students had the opportunity both to express pride in their roots and to emphasize the Polish character of the Bolesławiec region.

Od lewej: Andrzej Olejniczak, Marta Satoła i Zdzisław AbramowiczOd lewej: Andrzej Olejniczak, Marta Satoła i Zdzisław Abramowicz • Gerard Augustyn

“The standard of the entries was good this year,” assesses Czesław Szmelter, chair of the competition committee. The works by primary-school students were the best. “Using sports terminology, it was the group of death,” he adds.

Gerard Augustyn

During Thursday’s ceremony, the competition organizers also honored the supervisors of the entries: Elżbieta Czyżowicz, Maria Czyżowicz, Katarzyna Dorosz, Dariusz Kunaszko, Irena Lembryk, Sylwia Parada, Jolanta Smolińska and Małgorzata Szymańska. The works by the first- and second-place winners qualified for the regional stage.

(information ii)