Greetings, I am currently working on my third photo history of New England Polonia. "Worcester County's Polish Community" will be "a community family album," to use the phrase that I coined three years ago for my first book, "The Polish Community of Worcester." This will be a ground-breaking book: the first publication to document the experiences of nine different Polonias in central Massachusetts and show their interrelationships. It's an exciting project to preserve our Polish heritage, and I invite anyone interested to contact me off-list for more information. Some basic details follow. Barbara Proko (a Worcester, MA native currently residing in New Britain, CT) ******************** Worcester County's Polish Community A new photo history celebrating Worcester County's Polish heritage is in the works, and anyone willing to share family, parish, business, school, team or organization photos for the project is invited to participate. Barbara Proko, Janice Baniukiewicz Stickles, and the Czestochowa Guild of Catholic Women are developing "Worcester County's Polish Community" for fall 2007 release in Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series. Proko and Stickles see the new book as a natural complement to their 2003 Arcadia volume, "The Polish Community of Worcester." While the first book focused on the city's "Polonia," this one will encompass the entire county, corresponding to the area served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester. The new book will highlight the communities associated with the diocese's seven Polish parishes--located in Clinton, Dudley, Gardner, Southbridge, Webster, West Warren, and Worcester--as well as the Polonias of Gilbertville and South Grafton. It will also examine early Polish settlement in the towns surrounding Worcester and the later Polish American move to these suburbs. Poles began settling in Worcester County in the 1860s, with major waves of immigration occurring between 1890 and 1914, after World War II, and in the 1980s. The 2000 census identified more than 51,000 county residents as having Polish heritage. "Like our first book, this photo history will essentially be a community family album, representing as fully as possible the range of Polish experience here. There are countless stories to tell and memories to share, whether of parish jubilees and Polish picnics or sports stars and successful businesspeople," Proko said. The Arcadia format accommodates about 235 images. The authors are seeking photos, documents, advertisements, and other paper memorabilia from the 1860s through the 1980s. As with their 2003 project, they will return all materials and acknowledge all lenders in the new book. Proko and Stickles are organizing photo pick-up sessions at various locations around the county. Scheduled to date are: Saturday, April 8--Our Lady of Czestochowa Church, 34 Ward St., Worcester, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, April 9--Polish National Home, 7 Main St., South Grafton, noon-4 p.m. Sunday, April 23--Booklovers' Gourmet, 55 East Main St., Webster, noon-3 p.m. Saturday, April 29--Sturbridge Coffee Roasters Cafe, 210 Hamilton St., Southbridge, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, April 30--Tatnuck Bookseller, 18 Lyman St., Westborough, 11 a.m.-2p.m. Interested persons may also submit materials to members of the Czestochowa Guild of Catholic Women of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Worcester. For more information, contact Barbara Proko at (860) 223-0887 or [email protected]; or Janice Baniukiewicz Stickles at (508) 833-1620 or [email protected] ### __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com