The Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Marek Kuchciński was a guest of the 1st Maria Kaczyńska Memorial in Rabka-Zdrój (March 9th).

It was a recreational skiing event: downhill slalom on the course adjusted to the participant's age, played in three age categories. The aim was to commemorate President Maria Kaczyńska, who in 1958-61 as a resident of Rabka attended a high school - Eugeniusz Romer High School. Marta Kaczyńska took patronage of the Memorial.

See photos from the Memorial (podhaleregion.pl).

More information on this after PAP and wp.pl:

She was quiet and helpful, she loved mountains, skiing and music - this is how former First Lady Maria Kaczyńska was remembered by her friends and colleagues from her youth during the First Memorial in her name, which took place in Rabka-Zdrój.

"Commemorating the tragically deceased president by dedicating to her a sports event aimed at children and young people is a beautiful gesture fully in line with the ideas that Maria Kaczyñska followed in her life, especially in her activities as the First Lady," wrote Marta Kaczyñska, daughter of Maria and Lech Kaczyñska, tragically deceased in the Smolensk catastrophe, in a letter to the participants. - In our conversations my mother often mentioned her teachers and friends from Rabka. The environment in which she grew up helped her to become an open-minded person, a patriot curious about the world, a polyglot, a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother.

Maria Kaczyńska spent her childhood and youth in Rabka. She attended elementary school and high school in Rabka, where she graduated.

The Memorial began with skiing competition for children and young people with the participation of 120 participants. In the afternoon an exhibition commemorating the relationship between Maria Kaczyńska and Rabka was opened. Also presented were photographs documenting the activities of former President Lech Kaczyński as a parliamentarian from the Nowy Sącz-Podhale region in the years 1991-1993.

- Lech Kaczyński fought for Poland's place in Europe and in the world, he restored historical memory, which had been misinterpreted and passed on for many generations," said Marek Kuchciński (Law and Justice), deputy speaker of the Sejm.

The initiator and main organizer of the Memorial of Maria Kaczynska, MP Anna Paluch informed that it will also be held next year, and parliamentarians will be invited to participate in the skiing competition.

(meg, ah)