Bus Trip to White Deer, Texas  –  See photos here. Aug. 31 – Sept. 1, 2013

The Father Leopold Moczygemba Foundation chartered a bus for 38 people to attend the 100th Anniversary of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in White Deer, Texas, in the panhandle. The group was led by Monsignor Franciszek Kurzaj, the pastor at Sacred Heart parish in Floresville, Texas. Included in the bus tour were five members of a team from the University of Wroclaw in Poland. The White Deer community and parish was established in 1913 by Polish families from Bandera and South Texas and other locations who traveled to White Deer to take advantage of job opportunities and land offered by a large ranching company at the beginning of the 1900s. The founding families surnames included Rapstine, Warminski, Mazurek, Kalka, Haiduk, Czerner, Anderwald, Gordzelik, Kotara, Kotzur, Peters, and Urbanczyk. The anniversary celebrations included a visit to the cemetery, a party at the parish hall, a Centennial Mass, and a Polish Sausage Dinner, and a visit to the large Cross and Stations of the Cross at Groom, Texas.