You and your family are invited to participate in the Memorial Walk/Run of Sybir in Christchurch, which is a part of our local celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the arrival of Polish Pahiatua Children Pahiatua in New Zealand.  The Memorial Walk/Run of Sybir is an annual worldwide event organized by the Sybir Memorial Museum in Poland to commemorate the mass deportations of Poles in 1940 from Polish territories occupied by the Red Army in September 1939. Among the victims of the forced deportations were the families of the Polish Children from Pahiatua. By participating in this event, let's honour the memory of these victims of communist oppressions.

We will meet at Groynes Park in Sector 2e, on Sunday, 9 February 2024. The walk/run will begin at 2 p.m. We will walk, or run, along the Otukaikino (the stream flowing from Groynes is the Waimakariri River, along the western border of the Dog Park). Return along the same route, after covering a distance of your choice. Baked sausages will await  all participants at the finish line.

Information for those who want to be officially registered in this worldwide event: our branch of SPK has been officially registered in the 2025 Memorial Walk/Run of Sybir as a group  of participants, named after the “Polish Children of Pahiatua”.  We invite anyone wishing to join our group, by sending the full name, date of birth and email address (these are the requirements of the organizers) to Joanna Rode-Pawlikowski not later than later this week. There is no fee. Her email address is: joanka.rode@gmail.com, phone: 027 2231810. Participants so registered will receive official starting numbers. In addition, our group will receive a commemorative medal of the 2025 Sybir Memorial Run. According to the rules of the 2025 Memorial Walk/Run, each officially registered participant must walk/run a minimum of 5km to be placed on the global list of participants, which will be available on the Internet. Covering 5km, or a greater distance, can also be done in instalments, between February 11 and 28.  A summary of last year's Sybir Memorial Run can be found at

https://sybir.bialystok.pl/tegoroczna-edycja-biegu-pamieci-sybiru-za-nami-podsumujmy-wydarzenie/ .

Those who wish to participate individually and receive a medal should contact Joanna Rode-Pawlikowski. Her email address is joanka.rode@gmail.com, phone: 027 2231810. Individual participation costs PLN 69, or about NZD 30.