ABOUT US

THE WILNO HERITAGE SOCIETY
Events Family Stones Heritage Store Heritage Walks Stories 2008 Celebration

Wilno Heritage Projects

Since its inception in 1998, the Wilno Heritage Society has embarked on a number of projects designed to commemorate and celebrate the Polish Kashub Culture in Canada.

The First Project was to build a Heritage Park in the village of Wilno on the site of the old CN railway Station. CLICK HERE for details on how the park project got started.  Today, Wilno Heritage Park is a beautiful tourist destination.

Further projects included  the addition of several buildings to the  site. Another project was the creation of historical and heritage displays and the "making" of a Museum. The Museum is now comprised of a number of display buildings in the style of the Polish "skansens" /open-air museums.
As part of the Museum project, the Wilno Heritage Society is also developing a Reference Library and a Resource Centre.

A variety of Educational Projects have been undertaken, one of the most popular being the Kashubian Embroidery Lessons given annually to Senior Elementary students at local schools. 

As well, the Wilno Heritage Society has set up interpretive historical Heritage Displays at a number of different locations such as the Main Legislative Building at Queen's Park in Toronto, in the town of Renfrew for Heritage Day 2006 and in Whitney for Polish Night 2006. We now have a good number of portable display boards and posters available for future showings.

Educational Talks and Presentations are also a part of the on-going projects of the Wilno Heritage Society. CLICK HERE for one example. Both David Shulist, President of the Wilno Heritage Society, and Shirley Mask Connolly, have given talks and heritage presentations to various genealogical and historical groups. In 2006, Shirley made an audio-visual presentation on the topic of the Kashubs in Canada at the University of Toronto and at the Polish Consulate in Toronto. She also travelled to Wisconsin in October 2007 to give this presentation in honour of the 150th anniversary of the first Kashubian Settlement in America - 1857-2007 [in the Polonia/Rosholt area of Portage County, Wisconsin]. They celebrate their 150th anniversary one year prior to ours in Canada. We were very pleased that several of the American Kashub descendants from Wisconsin joined us in Wilno in 2008 for our celebration.

The Wilno Heritage Society has many on-going projects  as well as the continued development of the Museum/Skansen/Park site in Wilno. The Restoration of the Log Farmhouse Project , which was the main project for the last few years,  was completed in 2008. Volunteers are always needed, however and if you are interested in learning more about our volunteers or in helping with one or more of our projects, CLICK HERE.

For more information on the Wilno Heritage Society e-mail:
heritage@wilno.org