This story is featured in Episode 68
On September 20-22, 2019 delegates from all over the world came to Toronto to celebrate 10 years of Quo Vadis, a unique youth movement, one and only in the world.
Quo Vadis in Latin means “where are you going?” It is the title of a 1896 iconic historical novel by one of the most famous Polish writers Henryk Sienkiewicz, which contributed to his Nobel Prize in literature in 1905.
Young Polish Canadians adopted this phrase as the title of their conferences. The focus on the themes of heritage, leadership and unity.
Over the past 10 years, there have been eleven editions of the conference held in cities across Canada, the United States and Australia. As of 2019, there are already over 1,200 Quo Vadis alumni worldwide, and counting.
The 2017 conference was organized in Burlington, Ontario. The conference and its organizers were featured on POLcast in Episodes 48 and 49. (Time for the young Poles in Canada)
A few weeks ago Quo Vadis celebrated its 10th years at a conference in Toronto.
For the very first time the organizers awarded the Sir Casimir Stanislaw Gzowski Quo Vadis Leadership Medal, named in honour of one of the most significant Canadians of Polish descent in history, Sir Casimir Gzowski (knighted by Queen Victoria), whose own story reflects the ideals of Quo Vadis. Casimir Gzowski fought for Poland’s freedom in the November Uprising, became a political prisoner, and then emigrated to Canada, where he became a most accomplished and famous engineer who helped to build some of the most important infrastructure in this country, a wide variety of Canadian railways as well as the Welland Canal. He also served as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1896 to 1897.
In this episode POLcast talks to Ania Barycka, the Quo Vadis conference spiritus movens, organizer and veteran.
