Stanisław Stolarczyk


Stanisław Stolarczyk, is a journalist, reporter, writer, and documentary of the Polish footprints in Canada. He is a member of the Association of Polish Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Polish Writers' Union. The author of several books is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Polish weekly Czas-Związkowiec and the Director of the publishing company FAKTY which specializes in the literature of facts in Toronto.

Biography: Career as a Journalist, Reporter, Writer, and Documentary

After obtaining the title of Bachelor of Arts in Geology from the University of Warsaw, Stolarczyk completed his studies in Travel at the Institute of Tourism as well as studies in Journalism at the Polish Journalists' Association in Warsaw.
In Poland, he was committed full-time to the monthly newspaper "Gościniec", he collaborated with the Polish Television, wrote travel guide books "Roztocze Środkowe", and "Nadbużańskie Podlasie". In 1980, his reporting on ethnic minorities and ethnic groups from the series of "Polska mało znana", were awarded by the Board of the Association of Polish Journalists and assigned as the best publication of the year.
In 1981, he moved to London and the highlands of Scotland, where he collected informative material for the book "W górach Europy". There he also encountered a state of war. In 1983 he moved to Canada. Living in Ottawa, he worked as a journalist for the Polonia Admissions Committee of John Paul II in Canada, resulting in the extensive development of "John Paul II's meeting with the Polish community in Canada". He began a collaboration with the weekly newspaper "Związkowiec", where almost every week he wrote reports in Canada under the title "Reportaże z klonowym listkiem", in which he relayed his impressions from a trip across Canada.
From the moment he arrived to Canada, he began to document the traces of the Polish, including Polish cemeteries primarily on the so-called Ontarian Kaszuby. He brainstormed the exact inventory, and later, after doing archival research, he went to Canada in search of the vanishing Polish cemeteries and the rural churches in the provinces. To this end, he ventured his way to Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Later, the United States and the former Polish Eastern Borderlands. He has also showcased a photographic exhibit entitled "Raport o polskich cmentarzach w Kanadzie" in Ottawa, Montreal, Warsaw and Lublin.
In 1987 he took a reporter's journey to the Polar Circle to Fort Simpson to attend the meeting of Pope John Paul II with the Indians, Inuit, and Métis. A year later, he received a scholarship from The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, to write a documentation on "The Polish Geographical Names in Canada".
Compiling material for this project, the author visited various libraries and archives, as well as traveled more than twenty thousand kilometers – a rounded half the circumference of the globe.
He tried to get, there, where many of our countrymen have set foot and tried tirelessly to seek an easier way of life. The main tracks, which he has walked – read similarly as from the map – were of the Polish name. They also became a destination for a reporter. In 1990 he returned to Warsaw, he created a news agency Polonia Service Press, and looked for hidden bank deposits in Sudetenland by the Germans in 1945, and linked with the "Express Wieczorny – Kulisy" ). After a nearly two-year stay in Poland, once again he came to Canada as a foreign correspondent of this journal. The result of this work were hundreds of newspaper articles relating to Canada, and reports, including the visit of President Lech Wałęsa in Canada, from the Arctic – obtaining the North Pole by the Poles, from the mountain expeditions in the massif of Warsaw and the Rocky Mountains, of which he was the organizer and director, or from the participation in the World Championships of Gold Panning in Dawson City of the Yukon.

Awards

  • 1980 – received an award from the Head Executive Board of the Association of Polish Journalists for the best publication of the year in Poland
  • 2001 – received first prize in the International Literature Competition sponsored by the International Polish Media Forum

Writings

Spotkanie Jana Pawła II z Polonią kanadyjską, 1984Gdzie stopy nasze, 1991Hobby Jana Pawła II – gory, narty, kajaki, 1991 Tańcząc na wulkanie, 1991The Polish Geographical Names in Canada, 1992The Canadian section of Polish Heritage Travel Guide to USA and Canada, 1992Papież jakiego nie znamy, 1994Przepustka do raju, 1994Gdy wspominam Kaszuby, 2000Listy do Nieba, 2006Kaszuby – moja polska kanadyjska, 2010
In addition to his works, Stanisław Stolarczyk is also the documentary of the Polonia in Canada, and coordinator of the Polish Heritage in Canada Database.