Help Remember Glace Bay's Polish History
Donation protected
This September, the Province of Nova Scotia will mark the first annual Polish Heritage Month. From Bridgewater to Whitney Pier, events are being planned to celebrate the richness of local Polish culture and to pay tribute to the immigrants who made their way from villages outside Kraków to the piers of Halifax and beyond.
A strong contingent of these pioneers was made up of mining families who settled in Glace Bay at the turn of the twentieth century. Many of them worked at Caledonia pit, others at 1-B mine. All of them added vitality to the town. We want to remember their contributions to life in the Big Town.
To that end, our group is working to gain access to a parcel of land on Dawe Avenue, which is within eyeshot of Douglas Avenue, Morien Hill, and No. 4 colliery, where so many of Glace Bay’s Poles lived and worked. Our plan is to place a monument, an interpretive marker, there, and to unveil it during Polish Heritage Month, September 2020.
We invite everyone who has a heart connection to Glace Bay’s Polish community to contribute to the cost of building this memorial. Make a cash donation, please. Just as important, share your memories — your stories, your photographs, your mementos — with us, too. Let the establishment of a monument at the base of Polish Hill be the first step in a journey to reclaim a history that is filled with hardship and triumph, laughter and music, and friendship most of all.
Let us preserve and share the memory of Glace Bay’s Polish community.
For the Glace Bay Polish Heritage Project
Dr. Edward Michalik, son of the late Bernie and Jeanie Michalik, 286 Douglas Avenue, Glace Bay.
Dr. Tom Urbaniak, President of Saint Michael’s Polish Benefit Society, Whitney Pier.
A strong contingent of these pioneers was made up of mining families who settled in Glace Bay at the turn of the twentieth century. Many of them worked at Caledonia pit, others at 1-B mine. All of them added vitality to the town. We want to remember their contributions to life in the Big Town.
To that end, our group is working to gain access to a parcel of land on Dawe Avenue, which is within eyeshot of Douglas Avenue, Morien Hill, and No. 4 colliery, where so many of Glace Bay’s Poles lived and worked. Our plan is to place a monument, an interpretive marker, there, and to unveil it during Polish Heritage Month, September 2020.
We invite everyone who has a heart connection to Glace Bay’s Polish community to contribute to the cost of building this memorial. Make a cash donation, please. Just as important, share your memories — your stories, your photographs, your mementos — with us, too. Let the establishment of a monument at the base of Polish Hill be the first step in a journey to reclaim a history that is filled with hardship and triumph, laughter and music, and friendship most of all.
Let us preserve and share the memory of Glace Bay’s Polish community.
For the Glace Bay Polish Heritage Project
Dr. Edward Michalik, son of the late Bernie and Jeanie Michalik, 286 Douglas Avenue, Glace Bay.
Dr. Tom Urbaniak, President of Saint Michael’s Polish Benefit Society, Whitney Pier.
Fundraising team (3)
Edward Michalik
Organizer
Alison Etter
Team member
Sandy Michalik
Team member