NORTHAMPTON — Two people who have been going to the Pulaski Day Parade in Northampton for decades are Wieslaw Olszak and his wife, Marya Olszak.
Wieslaw Olszak was active in the Solidarity trade union, which helped to end communist rule in Poland, and his presence was acknowledged and honored in a ceremony at Pulaski Park following Monday’s parade. He was imprisoned for his work with Solidarity, and has received a knighthood from the Polish government with the Order of Polonia Restituta.
“I was sentenced to three years,” and served 16 months in prison, he said.
Marya Olszak, who was pregnant with her third child when she immigrated to the U.S. and was involved with Solidarity herself, said that her grandchildren are being taught how to speak Polish.
The couple initially immigrated to Savannah, Georgia, — the city where Casimir Pulaski fell in battle in 1779 — and they’ve now been in the Valley for more than three decades. They currently live in Chicopee.
“We are very proud that we came to the United States,” said Marya Olszak.
Despite being overcast Monday, it did not rain on Northampton’s 32nd annual Pulaski Day Parade.
Longtime parade watchers joined first-time attendees, as the celebration of Polish heritage made its way through downtown, culminating at the ceremony in Pulaski Park. The parade featured marching bands, men, women and children in colorful Polish costumes, politicians and musicians playing traditional Polish songs.
“I thought it went very very well,” said Jerry Budgar, one of the parade’s organizers.
The parade is named for and honors Casimir Pulaski, a Polish nobleman who fought and died in the American Revolution on the side of the colonists and is known as the father of the American cavalry.
“He’s a very important Polish person in the history of the world,” said Fred Zimnoch, president of the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts.
The keynote speaker at the Pulaski Park program was Stephanie Kraft, a translator and longtime journalist, now retired. Although Kraft isn’t of Polish descent, she has visited Poland every year since 1990, and she first traveled to the country in 1988, prior to the end of communist rule.
Kraft spoke both about Pulaski and the Polish people’s fight against communism, and tied both struggles to the present day.
“What do we take away today, from thinking about Polish freedom fighters from Pulaski to Solidarity?” she asked the crowd.
“Poles have understood historically that freedom has to be fought for in different ways, at different times, often against great odds,” she continued. “The adversary may not be an alien army. It may be an oligarchy that skews the law and cozies up to dictators in order to protect its own wealth and power. And that footprint is seen under monarchy, under communism and under capitalism.”
Kraft said Pulaski reminds us that the fight for freedom is universal, and that the successes of freedom fighters in one place inspires those in others.
“Because the free world is a chain that’s only as strong as its links,” she said.
Prior to the parade, a memorial Mass was held at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Northampton.
“This is the first year we actually decided to do the 10 o’clock Mass,” said Joe Sieracki Jr., of Easthampton, a member of the Knights of Columbus who has been coming to the parade with his wife, Christine, for many years.
He described the Mass as “awesome” and “one of the area’s best kept secrets.”
Following the ceremony at Pulaski Park, organizers and marchers gathered at the St. John Cantius Social Hall, to enjoy a lunch of sauerkraut, rye bread, kielbasa, pasta with sauce and other dishes.
The co-grand marshals of the parade were state Reps. John Scibak, D-South Hadley, and Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, both of whom are retiring after the end of their terms at year’s end. Last year’s grand marshal, Rep. Peter Kocot, D-Northampton, died in February.
“He was our best friend,” Scibak told the crowd at the park, saying that they were honored to be named the parade’s marshals the year after Kocot. “It really means a lot to us.”
One of the parade’s marchers, as well as a speaker at Pulaski Park, was Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, whose paternal grandparents emigrated from Poland to Vermont.
“My grandmother only spoke Polish,” Narkewicz said.
He also noted the Pioneer Valley’s large Polish population.
“It’s really deeply imbedded in the culture here,” he said.
Alan and Christine St. Hilaire, of Hadley, watched the parade for the first time this year, because their son was carrying the American flag for the Hopkins Academy Marching Band.
“We’re from Hadley so we’re kind of Polish by association,” Alan St. Hilaire said.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.