Poland event to highlight ties to wars

Staff report

POLAND

Though last year’s Celebrate Poland festivities centered on Civil War history, this year the event also will highlight local ties to the American Revolutionary War.

The fourth annual Celebrate Poland begins today at Poland Village Hall, 308 S. Main St., and continues Saturday with a variety of events, including displays, a craft show, chalk art, a bonfire and concerts from local bands.

Tours of the Poland Presbyterian Church, 2 Poland Manor, will be at 6 and 8 tonight, said Larry Warren, one of Celebrate Poland’s organizers.

“It’s the oldest cemetery in the area, and it has a number of Revolutionary War veterans,” Warren said. “It’s unique to find that number of Revolutionary War veterans buried this far west. Poland became a population center after the war, and ... that’s sometimes overlooked.”

At 11 a.m. Saturday, a monument to Polish veterans of World wars I and II will be rededicated at Peterson Park, next to the life-size statues of Polish Gens. Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, veterans of the Revolutionary War.

The Polish monument originally stood for decades outside a Polish-American social hall on Youngstown’s South Side.

Later that day, organizers will have a “Salute to the Ohio 23rd Volunteer Infantry” at Riverside Cemetery, where 22 veterans from that unit are buried or memorialized.

U.S. Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley both fought in that unit during the Civil War.

“It’s unique that you would have one unit with two future presidents,” Warren said.

Other new events at Celebrate Poland include the Mahoning Valley Artist Portfolio Show tonight and Saturday, and 5K Race and 2 Mile Walk, which begin at 10 a.m. Runners can register the day of the race, and the cost is $15.

“We don’t want to do the same-old, same-old each year,” Warren said.