The PACT scholarship were awarded on Wednesday, August 8th, by Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in her Toledo office at One Maritime Plaza. Ms. Kaptur was gracious enough to spend quite a while with the winners. After reading both of their essays on “What Having a Polish American Heritage Means to Me”, Ms Kaptur asked questions of both of the young ladies about their essays and what they knew about their heritage. She also talked to them about the history of Poland and its people and their centuries long fight for freedom and liberty.
Congresswoman Kaptur also talked about the role General Thaddeus Koscuiszko and Casimir Pulaski played in our country’s fight for freedom in the Revolutionary War, including the fact that Casimir Pulaski took a bullet meant for General George Washington and that General Koscuiszko is the father of West Point in New York. Megan Pawlowski’s family heritage includes a grandfather who was in a WWII work camp and the birth of her father in a relocation camp in Poland. Sarah’s family also had similar experiences because her grandfather was born at a fort in Brest-Litovsk in, at the time, Poland. When WWII broke out, he was 14 and escaped to a refugee camp in Romania. Both Megan and Sarah appreciate what their grandparents went through and the hardships they endured to come to America. PACT was happy to award these two deserving young ladies these scholarships and wishes them success in their futures.
