16th President of the Polish National Alliance

President, Vice President and Director of the Polish National Alliance. A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Helen Szymanowicz served as a PNA local activist as President of her Lodge (2205) and Council (72) and was also highly successful as an organizer in promoting membership development in her home district for a number of years. In 1967 she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Polish National Alliance and four years later was the choice of the delegates to the PNA's 36th national convention. Szymanowicz continued to serve as PNA Vice President until her retirement in 1991 and return to Erie.

In 1988, Szymanowicz succeeded to the Presidency of the PNA following the death of Aloysius A. Mazewski. She directed the Alliance during the interim prior to the decision of the PNA Supervisory Council in October 1988 to elect Edward J. Moskal to the presidency.

During her twenty years as Vice President, Szymanowicz effectively managed the Educational Department of the PNA in a time of great change. Into the mid 1980s, this work largely involved providing educational assistance to the students of Alliance College; thereafter and following the closing of that institution, Szymanowicz directed the PNA's annual college scholarship awards competition and administering the Alliance's financial support for the Saturday schools promoting the Polish language and culture in this country.

Szymanowicz as President of the PNA Benevolent Society
[Stowarzyszenie Dobroczynnosci] was active in collecting funds and goods for the needy In this country. Following the repression of the Solidarity movement in 1981, she played a leading role in the Polish American Community's massive efforts to gather medical supplies and foodstuffs for the suffering people of Poland and chaired a highly successful drive to collect and ship shoes for children.

In appreciation of her lifetime of dedicated service to the cause of the Alliance, the PNA honored Helen Szymanowicz on a number of occasions, and In 1991 voted her an honorary lifetime delegate to its quadrennial national conventions.