There may be various forms of social work to preserve the Polish heritage in Canada and to nurture what has been left behind by those who built Polish churches, established organisations, schools... One solution, which should certainly be considered exemplary, has been implemented by the Polish Social and Cultural Foundation of Quebec, based in Montreal. This foundation is an organisation with the statute of a charitable organisation and, since its foundation in 1979, has brought together in its ranks individuals and institutions whose concern is to support all forms of cultural, scientific and social activity of the Polish community in Quebec and who care about documenting the Polish heritage and popularising Polish traditions and culture.

The Foundation was created out of the need to actively financially support Polish-Canadian organisations operating mainly in the province of Québec.

"The purpose of the Foundation - as stated in its statutes - is to raise funds and generate income to enable grants to be made to enable the development and operation of organisations statutorily engaged in various forms of cultivating Polishness. Another important strand of activity is the concern to improve the social and material position of the Polish community. This manifests itself in supporting the education of young people of Polish origin at university level by awarding scholarships for young people studying, funded by individual donors to the Foundation."

To encourage sponsors to make donations, the Foundation created a special burial place for them, the Quarters of Merit, which is located in the Notre-Dame-DesNeiges cemetery in Montreal.

This initiative was born in 1988, when former Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald prisoner Bolesław Lewandowski (1899-1988), who bequeathed almost one hundred thousand dollars to the Polish Social and Cultural Foundation in his will, died. It was obvious that the Polish Foundation decided to provide its greatest benefactor with a dignified place of burial and care for his grave, so that the memory of a man who had donated his entire life savings to the Polish Foundation would not be lost. He, too, was the first to be laid to rest in the Quarters of Merit.

Great credit for this goes to the former president of the Foundation, Zbigniew Małecki (1922-2009), who in 1939 passed the competitive examination to enter the State Maritime School in Gdynia and served his apprenticeship on the newest transatlantic ship MS "Chrobry" on its inaugural voyage to South American ports. The outbreak of war found him in Brazil. By a circuitous route, he reached Great Britain, where he volunteered for military service with an assignment to the 2nd Infantry Rifle Division in France. The Division, after fierce battles with General Guderian's German Panzer Division at Maiche and St-Hippolyte, crossed the Swiss border on the night of 20-21 June 1940 and was interned. There, after passing the Polish and Swiss matriculation exams in 1943, he studied at the University of Freiburg (humanities - history of philosophy, history of art and history, parallel studies in journalism). He was co-editor of, among others: "Pamiętnik Literacki", "Kultura", "Wiadomości", "Polski Walcząca", "Syrena", "Dziennik Polski" and "Dziennik Żołnierza". In Canada, he worked professionally in Montreal at the Canadian Marconi telecommunications company from 1951. He was very active in the life of the Canadian Polish community. For many years he was a regular contributor to Polish newspapers, including: "Gazeta", "Związkowca" and "Biuletyn Polonijny". He died in Montreal and is buried in the Notre-Dame-Des-Neige cemetery.

Every year, the Polish Social and Cultural Foundation in Quebec subsidises Polish schools, the scouting movement, the education of Polish students and, above all, maintains the Polish Library at the Polish Scientific Institute in Montreal, with over 45,000 books, which was founded by Wanda Maria Stachiewicz (1895-1995), a graduate of the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów and the Paris Sorbonne in the study of the history of civilisation. The wife of General Wacław Stachiewicz (see "Generałowie-tułacze"), she made her way to England during the Second World War, from where she reached Canada in 1940 with the first transport of children and women from the UK. In Montreal, she obtained a position at the International Labour Office (League of Nations Office). Despite her paid work, she took an active part in the social work of Polish institutions. She co-founded the Association of Polish War Refugees and organised a series of lectures on Polish culture at McGill University. In recognition of her services, the General Assembly of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada in 1984 named the library she founded and was its long-time director: the Wanda Stachiewicz Polish Library. She died in Montreal. She is buried in the cemetery in St. Adele, Quebec.

Currently, more than a hundred founders with Polish ancestry rest in the Quarters of Merit. Each has his or her own gravestone here with their name on it and for eternity: flowers, candles and communal prayers during the procession on All Souls' Day. As the inscription on each gravestone proclaims: THEIR MEMORY WILL NOT BE LOST.

Location: Notre-Dame-Des-Neiges Cemetery, 4601 Chem., Montreal, Quebec, Canada.