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Nov 3, 2024

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Koltun Represents Polonia At Heritage Ball

us2_koltun_tagain  Mr. Chris Koltun was named this year’s Polish honoree at the 2013 pluri-ethnic New Jersey Heritage Festival Ball.

When we hear Chris Koltun’s name, we link him with Classic Automobiles. He is the long-serving Car Show Chairman of the Annual Polish Heritage Festival which will take place this year on Sunday, June 9th at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey.

As a well known collector of antique automobiles, Mr. Koltun is also in charge of presenting his cars, which all agree are much appreciated attractions, at the annual General Kazimierz Pułaski Day Parade in New York City.

Mr. Koltun only fully expressed, very recently, the full range of his sentiments and engagements on behalf of Poland, the country of his birth, and how they are linked with the United States of America, where he and his family have prospered, through adherence to Polish family values and work discipline. (Krzysztof was born in Warsaw, Poland, and his parents, Stefan and Danuta Koltun, were proud Polish patriots.)

Mr. Koltun expressed his views on the importance of Poland and Polish values for America and his fellow Americans in his masterly speech at the Heritage Festival Ball on April 20, 2013 at the Mediterranean Manor, Newark, New Jersey.  He asserted that the congruence of Polish and American values are based on respect for family, labor, and country.

As this year’s Polish honoree, Mr. Koltun made us all particularly proud by distributing to those at the inter-ethnic Heritage Festival Ball two important elements of information.  Both are of compelling interest to all Americans, of various ethnic origins, so that they may know us Poles better.  Both items came from the American Institute of Polish Culture, based in Miami, Florida, which was founded in 1972 by Lady Blanka Rosenstiel.  The first is, “PERSPEKTYWA POLSKA:  ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF POLISH CULTURE, a pictorial exhibit.  The second, “Conrad and His Contemporaries”(The American Institute of Polish Culture: 1981) illustrated by Feliks Topolski, shows how Joseph Conrad’s father’s sacrifices as combatant during the Polish January 1863 Insurrection against Russia, whose 150th anniverary we commemorate this year, informed his son’s widely read novels.

This year’s festival, again, will be held on Sunday, June 9th. Admission to this day of family festivities to celebrate our Polish heritage is free. The day begins with Polish-English Mass at 10 a.m.  By long established tradition, this year’s Chair of the Polish Heritage Festival, Ms. Isabella Szutkowski, will choose the prize-winning vintage car.

– John Czop