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Polish people coming to Kaszuby often find themselves asking; To whom does this piece of land belong to? how about this house? which year did they build this or that? And how exactly does it occur that around this area so many polish people who live here permanently as well as tourists meet up here year after year. In order to find out how all of this has begun, we have to go back to the year of 1859. This is when the first group of Kaszubs from Poland came to the grounds today known as Wilno and Barry's Bay. Kaszubs left their homelands for many different reasons, but the most common ones were: political and religious harrasment as well as simply in the search for better life. The census from the year 1861 has revealed 260 polish settlers in the whole local administration of Renfrew Township. This period not only marks the beginning of Kaszubs settlement in Ontario, but also the beginning of polish settlement in Canada. The second bigger wave of polish immigrants came to Canada after the II World War, which has initiated different polish organizations like scouting etc. It was them that came up with the idea of organizing the scouts meeting, first in Canada's history. On the place of the assembly they appointed a small ''polish'' village under the name of Wilno in Ontario. This all happened in the summer of 1952. Few months later father Franciscan Rafal Jan Grzondziel also known as father Ignacy came to Wilno from the United States. He was a former chaplain of polish army which was part part of the fight for Monte Cassino in Italy. Father Rafal was astounded by the grounds of Wilno. He was actually searching for a good piece of land which he intended to use for building a Catholic Youth Center for all the polish youth in Canada. O a May Sunday in 1953 father Grzondziel took few people to accompany him on the trip from Barry's Bay in the direction of Halfway. At that time there still was a real Canadian wilderness. After they went through thick forest and bushes they stood on the shore of a lake called Wadsworth. This was exactly what father Rafal was looking for. They decided that in this place there will stand a chapel, which will mark the beginning of Catholic Youth Center. In early fifties people were able to get the land for free, pay just a small administrative amount. In June of 1953 father Rafal has received permission to build the center. Also in August -1953- they celebrated the first adoration in the new built chapel under the given name of ''Matki Boskiej Anielskiej'' on the shore of lake Wadsworth. Two weeks earlier however, father Rafal Grzondziel bought 400 acres farm with the buildings grounds from a local Kaszub. Today this place is well known as famous legendary ''Stodola''. In the summer of 1954 K.O.M. (Catholic Youth Center) became full of scouts which came to Kaszuby during their vacation. Throughout the two summer months , the nearby grounds were full of life which before never existed. In the winter of 1954 father Ignacy decided to build a ''ski resort'', since the conditions were ideal for it. There even arose a club under the name ''Kaszuby Ski Club''. And in this way Kaszuby Youth Center was open almost year round, which was of father Ignacy's primary goal. Ultimately the ski lift and club were active up until March 1964. Together with the scouts, polish people started coming more and more to Kaszuby; those for the vacation, as well as those who came to settle down permanently. That's why in 1955 it was necessary to provide electricity. One year later they had to build an altar in the forest near the chapel because the chapel was too small to fit all the people that were coming for a Sunday mass each week. This place of worship received the name ''Cathedra under the pines''. Thanks to the efforts of Father Rafal in the year of 1960 the name ''Kaszuby'' was officially placed on Canadian maps. On June 1st 1961 took place an opening a post office right in the heart of Kaszuby (in barracks). The post office was open every year throughout the three summer months. The first appointed postmaster was father Rafal Grzondziel. But in early eighties Kaszuby's post office was finally closed due to reorganizations of Canadian postal structures. Our polish scouts play a huge role in the development of Canadian Kaszuby, which they had made their second home. In 1954 scouts were renting the grounds from father R.Grzondziel , but subsequently in the few upcoming years they had bought the land for themselves near the lakes; Halfway and Long. Although not every scouts group was able to effort that. Presently the grounds with buildings near the Wadsworth lake are under the administration of Franciscan Monastery with the abode in Montreal. They had leased some of the grounds for the scouts, among which are ''Baltyk'' as well as ''Podhale''. Father Rafal Grzondziel died on December 22, 1998 and was buried on the Wilno cemetery.
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