by Dawn Myszka, PBW historian
On May 26, 2021, the Professional & Business Women of Polonia (PBW) held its first in-
The 2020 PBW scholarship winner, Lauren O'Neill, and her family joined PBW for the dinner. Members first met Lauren in October when she was presented with the 2020 PBW scholarship award.
Since then, she graduated from Canisius College with a bachelor of science degree in biology. She has been accepted into the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada where she will start classes this fall. Congratulations Lauren.
Sr. Mary Johnice Rzadkiewicz, PBW member and founder of the Response to Love Center on Buffalo’s East Side, started the evening with a prayer of gratitude for all first responders and volunteers who have worked tirelessly and without complaint over the last 14 months during the pandemic to ensure everyone's health and safety. Members were also reminded not to forget those we've lost during the pandemic. It was a very touching prayer.
Those in attendance were entertained by the music of David and Felicia Meyer, the husband and wife team of Kindred Duo. David and Felicia played guitar for several Irish folk tunes and sang songs from The Andrews Sisters ("Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree"), The Carpenters ("Close to You"), the Swedish pop group ABBA ("Fernando") and the movie Mary Poppins ("Spoonful of Sugar," "Let's Go Fly A Kite," "Chim Chim Cheree," and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"). One song that they sang, "Bye Bye Blackbird," was recorded by the late actress and jazz singer, Julie London. Readers may remember her as nurse Dixie McCall from the 1970s television show Emergency!.
Felicia sang a cappella the song "Nature Boy" written in 1947 by Eden Anbez and performed by the late Nat King Cole. She has an incredible voice.
And, who could forget the song "Brand New Key" also known as "The Roller Skate Song"? Felicia hit the high notes of that song with ease.
They included the song "What the World Needs Now (Is Love)" originally sung by Jackie DeShannon in 1965. With everything happening in the world today, the words to this song should be remembered by everyone.
They also sang "Side By Side" recorded by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. This song should remind everyone that friendships are important through thick and thin.
Everyone sang along to all of the songs.
David is also a classically trained cellist and played "Prelude" from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1. It was beautiful. They then played an instrumental of "How Great Thou Art" with Felicia on guitar and David on cello. It was amazing.
They ended the night with a medley of songs from The Sound of Music -
Hopefully, we will be able to resume our regular dinner meetings starting in September. Until then, stay safe and well.
by Dawn M. Myszka,
PBW Historian
The members of the Professional & Business Women of Polonia (PBW) and their guests gathered at Potts Banquet Hall on March 10, 2022 for a dinner meeting and a presentation on "Amelia Earhart: Has She Been Found?" by Gregory P. Kinal. Greg presented for us back in September 2021 on "Remarkable American Women." If you have a chance to attend one of his presentations, you will find that he is a very knowledgeable historian.
After many years, PBW board member and treasurer Theresa Tucholski is stepping down as program chair. The program chair coordinates getting guest speakers, musical entertainment, choosing the dinner menus and locations for our meetings. Everyone thanked her for her hard work. If anyone is interested in being the new program chair, please let us know.
PBW Member Barbara Strzepka gave the dinner prayer and offered blessings for those in Ukraine for hope, courage, strength, love and victory over the terrible invasion of their country. Barbara also donated her beautiful one-
Earhart – an inspiring woman
The disappearance of Amelia Earhart's plane in the Pacific Ocean in 1937 is one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century, said Kinal.
Everyone knew about the disappearance of Amelia's plane but we were all surprised to learn about the many other accomplishments she had as a woman and an aviator as presented by Kinal. She worked a variety of jobs – she was a nurse in 1918 during the Spanish flu, a teacher, a social worker, a truck driver, and a stenographer. Greg said that she did not have any formal schooling or certifications for those positions.
Amelia was born in Atchison, Kansas in 1897. She had a younger sister, Muriel Earhart. Muriel died in March 1998 while living in Medford, Massachusetts. Throughout her life, she wrote several books about her famous sister.
While attending the 1908 Iowa State Fair, an 11-
In 1921, she learned to fly from another female aviation pioneer, Neta Snook. Neta and Amelia became great friends.
Six months after she learned to fly, Amelia bought a bright yellow second-
On Oct. 22, 1922, she flew her plane to a new altitude world record of 14,000 feet for female pilots.
In 1928 Amelia got her chance to fly across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, she did not fly the plane. It was flown by pilot, Wilmer Stultz, and co-
Greg said that Amelia became an instant celebrity after that flight. She had several product endorsements – a Macy's clothing line, cigarette and luggage ads to name a few. She also was named Aviation editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.
In 1932, Amelia became the first woman to do a solo non-
Between 1930 and 1935, she set seven women's aviation records flying different airplanes and set several world flight records. In 1935, she was the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to Oakland; from Los Angeles to Mexico City; and from Mexico City to NYC.
During this time, she met a man by the name of Paul Mantz who taught her long distance flying.
Amelia set her mind to become the first woman to fly around the world. She planned the longest route -
There have been several theories about what happened when her plane disappeared. Did they crash and sink? Where they captured by the Japanese? Where they marooned on an island? Did she make it and assumed another identity? Was she the infamous "Tokyo Rose"? Was she on a spy mission for FDR? So far, there has been no recovery of any items, human or mechanical, to know what really happened. Whatever happened, there is no doubt that Amelia was a pioneer for the advancement of women in aviation.
If you would like to meet other inspiring women, come and be a part of the PBW of Polonia. For more information call (716) 491-
