AMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

Washington, November 12, 2002

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rackowski,

I have great pleasure and honor to congratulate you on the recognition by the Polish American Congress Washington Metropolitan Area Division for your effortless work in the promotion of Polish heritage in the United States.

Your great engagement for the benefit of others is exemplified by your vast involvement in numerous initiatives and organizations of the Polonia community. You have both actively participated in the co organization of the Polish American Congress division in the Metropolitan Washington Area, as well as effectively helped in the establishment of the Our Lady Queen of Poland and St. Maximillian Kolbe Parish, formally known as the Polish Catholic Pastoral Mission in Silver Spring. As president of the Polish National Alliance Lodge 848 for 20 years, Mr. Henry Rackowski, and with the aide of your wife, Mrs. Helen Rackowska, was directly involved in bringing the Polish National Alliance to become a funding trustee of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, DC.

Your diligent work and outstanding achievements in nurturing Polish culture and tradition have made it possible for numerous Polish-Americans to find a peaceful harbor to cherish and rekindle their ethnic background. Your devotion to this cause has been an inspiration to the many concerned for the preservation of Polish heritage in the United States.

I am proud to be able to congratulate you on your exceptional performance throughout all those years. As representative of a free and democratic Poland, it gives me even more satisfaction to see that all your hard work has benefited the strengthening of relations between the Polonia and Polish communities across the Atlantic, as well as the tightening of bond within the Polish-American community.

Let me have this opportunity to wish you all the very best of luck and success in your continuing involvement in the programs and activities of the Washington Polonia.

Przemysław Grudziński