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The Foundation received the status of an Ontario charitable organization under strict government control, although the federal Treasury Board allowed the Foundation to collect contributions from all over Canada, thanks to the efforts of Chester Smith and PAC Head Executive Board President Tadeusz Glista. The Establishment Act of the Foundation was signed by its first curators, who were C. Smith, T. Glista, J. Dobranowski, S. Gugala, A. Kozlowska, S. Kacperski, D. Warszawska, J. Pankowski, J. Gorycki, S. Rogoz, F. Niedziolka, J. Flis, G. Slodkowski, and J. Sarnecki. The Curators’ Council is chosen annually at a meeting of the Foundation’s members. The executive body is The Reymont Foundation Board. The committees are responsible for most of the work.
Four permanent – the Educational Committee, the Summer Studies Committee, the Scholarship Committee, and the Financial Committee – and many ad hoc committees were active during the first ten years of the Foundation’s existence. The ad hoc committees were called together if they were needed; for example, the Copernicus Committee was active during the Year of Copernicus. Thanks to this committee, the Foundation funded the creation of a sculpture of this great Polish astronomer’s bust, which was designed in Cracow, created in Toronto, and placed in Place Polonaise in Grimsby.
The Foundation’s constant revenues came from donations from the PAC Head Executive Board. Furthermore, harvest festival balls were organized, at which scholarships and bursaries were handed out to university students. During the first few years, an annual harvest festival ball was organized in the Veterans’ Hall in Oshawa.
Another source of revenue consisted of recitations, which were attended by guests from the most famous Polish educational institutions. The Reymont Foundation also sponsored two concerts by the “Mazowsze” Ensemble, a performance of the “Gaweda” scouting troop from Warsaw, and a recital of the Lublin Catholic University Artistic Ensemble. Funds were also collected from inheritances and from the establishment of the Maria and Czeslaw Sadowski Fund in Windsor. The Glista Fund and the Krawczyk Family Fund were also established during the first few year’s of the Foundation’s existence.
The most important task of the Foundation was and continues to be the propagation of Polish culture in Canada, as well as the upholding of heritage among the Polish community; therefore, the organization of history, literature and Polish tradition courses for Canadian students in Poland and of summer courses for elementary and high school students was very important.
The Foundation’s president at the time, Julian Dobranowski, not the Polish government, chose the universities at which these summer courses would be held. Over 1000 children from the Polish community took part in these courses. The Foundation took over all of the Alliance’s Polish schools, while the Educational Committee organized annual teachers’ conferences, concerts, excursions, Teacher’s Day celebrations, and most importantly, very popular speech competitions.
Started by Michalina Wolnik, these competitions soon became beautiful “business cards” for the Foundation and were made into a real celebration of Polish poetry by subsequent coordinators. The Speech Competition was renamed the Maria and Czeslaw Sadowski Speech Competition. A set of regulations was made up, and a location for the semi-final competition for class and school finalists was created. A new location was found for the semi-finals, due to the increasing number of participants. During the finals, lovers of poetry received a treat in the recitation of poems by young Polish-Canadians. Curators of the Foundation decided to award the best speakers with a trip to Poland to participate in the “We Speak Reymont” Competition organized in Lipce Reymontowskie.
The Reymont Foundation’s activity is well-known among the Polish community, thanks to the scholarship funds that are administered by this organization. From 1980s the number of funds has increased tenfold.
In 1980, the following scholarships were administered by the Foundation: the University of Toronto Polish Student Union Fund, the Marie Curie-Sklodowska Association Fund, the Krawczyk-Krane Family Fund, the Sadowski Family Fund, and the T.A. Glista Fund. Interestingly, the Foundation awarded twenty of its own scholarships for two years.
In 2006, nearly 40 students received scholarships, of which only two were from The Reymont Foundation. Scholarships are handed out annually during a special ceremony. Scholarship recipients, donators, family members of recipients and other honoured guests participate in this celebration.
For many years, the special T. Glista Award has been handed out by Marina Glista and her son Greg to an exceptional volunteer in the Polish community in Canada. Young Polish-Canadian artists, including winners of the Speech Competition, always perform at this special event. The W. Reymont Foundation is also responsible for publishing activities that are rich and well-known within the Polish community.
The Foundation has financed several projects, such as the printing of school textbooks, biographies of J. Ziolkowska and Senator Stanley Haidasz, Gdy wsponinam Kaszuby (Remembering Kaszuby) written by S. Stolarczyk, and the collected works Poles in Canada. This is but a small taste of this type of Foundation work.
The W. Reymont Foundation has existed from 1970 and from the beginning, has served members of The Polish Alliance of Canada and of the entire Polish-Canadian community.
At the annual meeting of the Foundation’s members in 2004, By-Law Number 2 was changed, eliminating directors from the PAC Head Executive Board. For the 100th anniversary of The Polish Alliance of Canada, The W. Reymont Foundation’s founder, the PAC is only linked to the Foundation through its Constitution, scholarship funds of 9 Alliance Branches, and scholarship funds of various members of The Polish Alliance of Canada. The Foundation’s directors are also mainly members of The Polish Alliance of Canada.
The W. Reymont Foundation’s presidents have been the following individuals:
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