News

Almost each month, between September and June, the IWAK Committee, with the help of members, works to create a fun and varied range of events for our ladies, as well as their partners and families. Our events include ladies’ nights out, cinema evenings, drinks, the Spring Family Mixer, Halloween parties, and especially our beautiful Christmas Charity Gala – an absolute must for all (!!) with all proceeds going to valuable local charities. All this on top of our regular activity groups and coffee mornings! We are a busy bunch of women and we have a blast!

Here is just a glimpse of what we got up to last year, and with more to come in the new year starting NOW!

Last September we kicked off with an unforgettable drinks mixer on the gorgeous Sheraton Rooftop Terrace, where we also welcomed potential new members.

October brought with it a lot of spooky fun with not one but two Halloween parties! A fantastic bunch of scary little creatures of all ages turned fear and fright into fun and delight, enjoying games and treats at the IWAK Little Monsters’ Ball, with dancing, a scavenger hunt, pumpkin decorating and more, while the adults enjoyed a few drinks at a local night club. Let’s welcome the Halloween spirit again this month!

A new range of highly successful and super fun evenings for our members and their partners are parties themed according to country/culture. Our lovely multicultural friends at IWAK treated us throughout the year to memorable evenings with fun accents and delicious food and drinks from their home countries. These parties have included a German Oktoberfest Evening (thanks to Marianne) the lovely Indian Diwali festival of lights, organised and hosted at her home by Patrolekha, Korean Night by Mira Park, Aussie Night by Sharyn Hahn Streitberg, with ambitious quiz games and rare treats such as kangaroo and crocodile meat for the brave! We also enjoyed a Polish Evening (by Anna Mey) and a Portuguese Evening hosted by Carla Vasconcelos with the help of the Portuguese contingent. We thank all our members for kindly and generously hosting these brilliant events as well as all guests, whose generous donations enabled us to collect a whopping 7,000 PLN for the Autism Centre!

In December, traditionally, IWAK hosted its famous Charity Gala. This time the theme was a Venetian Masked Ball, held at the Sheraton Grand. Our guests did not disappoint, and showed up rocking beautiful masks! The Sheraton events room looked stunning decked out in Venetian scenery including a view of the Rialto with a gondola moored in front for photo purposes. The key goal of this Gala, as always, aside from having loads of fun, is to collect money for charity and this time we collected an incredible 35,000 PLN for the Children’s hospital in Kraków’s Prokocim. A great time was had by all.

Our Sheraton Coffee Morning in February was a special one with a Valentine’s Day theme, games and prizes, and an exceptionally large turnout!

In the month of May IWAK sold all types of original and lovely artistic goods at the Arts & Crafts Bazaar held during the May coffee morning at Sheraton, organised by our official photographer, Anna Spiridonova. That same month we also traditionally hosted our Spring Family Mixer picnic! A tasty barbeque and lots of room to run around and play at a scenic countryside Karczma restaurant close to Kraków.

This year we have already kicked off with the successful English Garden Party at Dom Kirby’s and are looking forward to enjoying Halloween, our gorgeous Gala (save the date for 7 December!), movie nights, cultural nights and many more events with you. Stay tuned!