Join us for the Wolverine Ball

The Polish Club of the University of Michigan has decided to honor the work of Dr. Anatole Dekaban and Pamela Liddle Dekaban at its annual Wolverine Ball on February 22, 2014 at the Rogel Ballroom in the Michigan Union. The funds raised at the Ball will go to this year to the Dekaban program which the Piast Institute oversees. The Polish Student Association, in addition to its mission to promote Polish culture and fellowship among students of Polish ancestry also seeks to assist organizations that promote the welfare of the Polish-American and other communities.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Anatole Dekaban. He was a Polish physician who completed his medical studies in 1939 at the University of Warsaw. During the war he ministered to the suffering people of his native city and served in the resistance. After the war, with his career path blocked by the new Communist authorities, he left for the west. After studying in England, Canada, and the U.S. he became a researcher at the National Institute of Health. While in England he married Pamela Liddle Dekaban, a nurse who was to assist him with his research and scholarly publications. At NIH he pioneered the new field of Pediatric Neurology and authored the first textbook in the field.

After his retirement Dr. Dekaban and his wife established three foundations to underwrite faculty fellowships for young Polish scholars to work at world class Western universities to advance their research. The Foundations also supported exchanges of senior scholars at the partner universities. These programs supported partnerships between the University of British Columbia and the Agricultural Academy in Warsaw, the Adam Smith School of Economics at the University of Glasgow and the Economics University and the University of Michigan and the Warsaw Technical University. Since the program began thirty years ago, well over 100 Polish scholars have done advanced research at Western Universities. The work of the Dekaban Foundation has enormously enhanced Polish science and built solid cooperation across national borders. Dr. Dekaban has, as the Father of Pediatric Neurology, made a major contribution to Medical Science. He and his wife have also contributed to the general advancement of science in the world and helped to build the new Poland as a key nation in Today's World.

The Piast Institute at the request of Dr. Dekaban took on the oversight of the documentation, administration, and financial management of the three Dekaban programs. It has discharged that responsibility since 2002. The monies raised by the Wolverine Ball will be used to help fund a scholarship prize in Dr. Dekaban's name in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Additional funds will be raised by a committee of the Piast Institute's Board of Directors.

The Piast Institute is a national research and policy center which focuses on the Polish American Community. It is an official Census Information Center (CIC) and a designated Homeland Security Certified Immigrant Assistance Site that works with Polish as well as other immigrant groups. Piast provides data analysis, historical, sociological and survey research as well as capacity building services to a wide variety of local and national non-profit organizations, schools, community groups, governmental agencies and governments. In the last years, it has worked with Wayne County MI, the European Community Organization Network (ECON), the Fund for Development of Civic Ideas- a Polish NGO, the Academy of International Studies, the City of Hamtramck and the Polish Consulates General in New York and Chicago. At the local level, in addition to research and analyses, it serves Polish and other immigrant and ethnic groups through community building and leadership of coalitions such as the Hamtramck Drug Free Community Coalition.

The Wolverine Ball will be held from 7pm until midnight at the Michigan Union Rogel Ballroom located at 530 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. There will be a live performance by Dunajec Song and Dance Ensemble during dinner. Tickets are sold for $35 per ticket. The last day to buy tickets is February 17th. To buy tickets please see the link below: Click here to buy a ticket >>>

If you have any other questions or need parking instructions please contact the Polish Student Association of the University of Michigan at: umpolska@umich.edu or Malgosia Michalowska of the Piast Institute at: Michalowska@piastinstitute.org

If you can't come, you can still show your support for the fund raising efforts of the students by sending a donation. We hope to see you there!

Michigan Union Address:
Rogel Ballroom
530 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Click here to buy a ticket >>>