Preparing the Buildings for the move from Canada to Poland
was a very big project for the Wilno Heritage Society
in the spring and early summer of 2009.

What buildings were sent to Poland and where did they come from?
Ed Chippior donated a stable that was once the original home of the Chippior /Szczypior family who arrived with the first Kashubs to Canada in 1858;
Adam Shulist donated a small stable from the old Mackwood/Machud homestead near Wilno. The Szczypior Building was of round log construction and the Machud was square logs.

Marian Gorlikowski (Kashub friend and filmmaker) on the left, with Ed Chippior, David Shulist and Daniel Czapiewski (creator of the Museum at Szymbark)

The buildings had to be thoroughly cleaned and fumigated before transporting.
As part of the preparations, Aloysius Blank [left] and Richard Shulist [right]
removed all loose bark from the logs.

The logs were then loaded into a Hapag-Lloyd container and trucked to Montreal for shipment to Hamburg, Germany and then Gdansk, Poland.

Don Etmanskie operated the loader, assisted by his son, Darryl.

Leaving Wilno, Ontario, Canada.

When the buildings got to Gdansk, Poland, they were reloaded onto a transport truck and ceremoniously taken from village to village in Kashubia to celebrate the story of the Emigrant Canadian Kashubs.  This generated a great deal of local as well as national excitement about the upcoming exhibit. We were very thrilled to see the story on the front page of the local Dziennik Bałtyki newspaper,  as well as featured in several other Polish papers, magazines and on Polish TV.

Reconstructing the Buildings and creating the Canadian Exhibit
at Szymbark, Poland
all happened while we were in Canada, but our friends in Kaszëbë, Poland kept us up to date on the progress with lots of photos.

The Canadian Section of the Museum at Szymbark, Poland.

We were amazed by how quickly it all came together and impressed by the scale of the project. It took a lot of hard work by a lot of people to be ready for the August 16, 2009 official opening. It reminded us of our hard work preparing for the 150th Anniversary of the Arrival of the First Kashubs in Canada and official opening of the log Farmhouse in Wilno on August 2, 2008, but we also know that when a Kashub is determined, a Kashub makes things happen – and a Kashub is not afraid of hard work.

Our Museum/Park/Skansen in Wilno, Ontario, Canada, was built with the determination and hard work of volunteers along with generous gifts of building materials, monetary donations and artifacts from members of the Wilno Heritage Society and friends and supporters of the Polish Kashub culture in Canada.

The Wilno Heritage Society was ready for the 150th Anniversary Celebration and the official Opening of the Canadian Kashub Farmhouse at the Polish Kashub Heritage Museum in Wilno on August 2, 2008,  as they at the Museum Centre of Education and Regional Promotion at Szymbark, Poland were ready for the official opening of their Canadian Exhibit on August 16, 2009.  

For more information on the August 2, 2008 Anniversary Celebration in Wilno, Click Here.

For more information on the August 16, 2009 Ceremony in Szymbark,
Click Here. (Coming Soon)