Saturday, July 26th @ 1 PM
Robert Gruchala will talk about his Polish American heritage.
Location: Pierre Bottineau homestead, south side of Red Lake Falls
entrance will be marked from Highway 32
By the age of five, when his parents moved from Fried, North Dakota, north of Jamestown, North Dakota (population of thirty or so). It seems the urge to explore his surroundings was born. By the age of thirteen, the urge to bike out to the horizon of the prairie had become one of Bob's habits.
Bob moved about, motivated by his curiosity, or by invitations of others being various towns in the Red River Valley, first with his parents and then on his own to finally settle more definitively in Minto, North Dakota in 1982 where he and Mrs. Gruchala live today. But during that time of his life when he moved about, often motivated by curiosity or by invitation of others Bob stretched out and away from North Dakota yet never straying away from the direct contact he nurtured with Polish and Polish American cultures.
In the 1970s Bob enrolled as a college student in the Polish Alliance College located in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. “Founded in 1912 by the Polish National Alliance and dedicated by U.S. President William Howard Taft, Alliance College was one of the nation's first nationality colleges. Its mission was to provide educational opportunities for everyone, but especially to those of Polish descent. … Alliance College included Polish arts, language and history as part of its curriculum and campus culture until it closed in 1987.” (Google Alliance College)
In 1968, near the time when Bob was a student there, the college had an enrollment of 629 students. Bob majored in English which he later taught in Minto high school beginning in 1982 when he settled there. But before Bob settled into teaching in Minto he traveled and studied in Poland. Setting aside money for travel during this time which he earned in various ways, Bob was able to return to Poland and other countries in Europe. Travel was once made possible through an invitation from a family in Warsaw, Poland. They had, of course, heard of Warsaw, North Dakota and have even heard of the young aspiration to know more lad of Polish descent who lives near there. From Warsaw, Poland further friendships and trust in those he met led him to visit Norway and Denmark.
Thus, Mr. Robert Gruchala, camouflaged as an English teacher is much more than an isolated individual. He is part of two communities: a community he went out to meet and the community of Minto where he now lives.
The comment by Virgil which follows underscores why we (AFRAN and its members) aim to develop friendship and knowledge through the programs we sponsor.
Too often people and places are no more than data in our lives. “Went there, done that.” Yet for others a bike ride, an invitation, a special educational experience, attachment to communities develop trust, knowledge and appreciation of others.
Come hear Bob tell of his sense of community, friendship and trust as he traveled within the nation of Poland and the Polish American communities he has known.
