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🇵🇱 Let's celebrate together 🇺🇲
📅08/29/26 9 am - spotkanie integracyjne 📍Gracely Park, Simpsonville, SC
📅09/12/26 10:30 am - 12:30 pm - pierwsze zajecia
📍St. Mary Magdalene w Simpsonville, SC
💃🕺Learn traditional Polish dances
📅 Thursdays, 7 pm - 9 pm
🏫St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church
Upstate Polish Market
Upstate Polish Market
🛒Pierogi - Kielbasa - Chocolates - & More
📍13455 E Wade Hampton Blvd, Greer, SC
🔓Tuesday - Friday 10 am - 6pm
🔓Saturday 10 am - 5 pm
☎️ (864) 400-9616
📅On last Sunday of every month, at 3 pm
⛪in St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church
🇵🇱 we celebrate the Mass in the Polish language.
by Anita Dolman
The past several months have been busy for the Polish American Society of Greenville, SC. Since its inception in September 2025, our non-profit has have worked diligently to support and serve the Polish community, as well as to proudly promote our heritage within the greater Upstate South Carolina community.
Starting in the fall, we presented our Polish heritage at the International Festival at St. Mary Magdelene Catholic Church in Simpsonville. Besides having one of the most popular stands at the event selling our tasty pierogi, kielbasa, bigos and cakes, our new Polish dance troupe, Polanie, performed twice during the festival. The festival was the perfect event to build connections, inform others in the community about our organization and invite them to participate in monthly bilingual Masses at the church and pot-luck gatherings with the community afterwards, as well as the many other activities we had planned.
In December, we proudly made our presence known at the largest Christmas parade in the Upstate, where our Polanie dancers represented our Polish community, dancing the Polonez in their colorful ethnic costumes through the streets of Greenville, SC. Polish Hussar knights marched alongside our dancers, creating quite an attraction for onlookers!
One of our organization’s long term goals is to establish a Polish language school in our area, and as a first step, we launched the Akademia Młodego Polaka, or Academy for the Young Pole. The weekly classed provided an opportunity for children to learn, play, craft and sing in the Polish language. This school year, the Academy served over 20 children from three to eleven years old, and we look forward to expanding our program in the coming years.
Our most recent opportunity to promote our culture was at the May 1-3 Polish Fest, organized by Greenville’s Fireforge Brewery. We were impressed by how many people attended the event and were excited to reconnect with their Polish roots. Polish food, beer, music and crafts were available at the event. Once again, our Polanie dancers performed beautifully during the festive weekend and even invited the public to join them in a joyful polka or two.
We are delighted that interest in the Polish American Society of Greenville, SC, is growing and we look forward to continuing our work to promote the Polish culture and community in our region.
by Anita Dolman
The Polish community in Upstate South Carolina, although modest, has grown steadily and become increasingly vibrant over the past three decades.
In the late 1980’s, the Polish-American Club of South Carolina was established, providing a framework for monthly gatherings, picnics, cultural events and English language lessons for the small Polish community and newly arriving immigrants. In 2002, however, as the needs of the community shifted, the club was dissolved. In 2009, Malgorzata and Piotr Zwolski, in an effort to provide the Polish community with a place to worship in their native language, asked Father Theo Trujillo at St. Mary Magdelene Catholic Church in Simpsonville, SC, about the possibility of holding mass in Polish at the church. This September, the Polish community celebrated 16 years of monthly Polish language masses. The church embraced the Polish community and provided a space for its members to gather, and to share their heritage at international festivals and during religious holidays, such as during the Blessing of Easter Baskets on Holy Saturday. Participation in these events grows every year.
The Polish community grew as did job opportunities in the booming automotive, computer and medical sectors in Greenville and surrounding areas, attracting Polish immigrant and Polish American professionals and their families to the area. In turn, older Polish Americans retired in the South to enjoy the mild weather.
In September 2025, Maria-Teresa Palbow, recognizing a growing need to unify and serve the Polish community beyond the church walls, established the Polish American Society of Greenville, SC. This nonprofit organization will serve as the primary social organization for the Polish American community in the area. It will highlight the presence of the Polish community in this region, raise awareness of the contributions of Poles to America’s legacy, organize cultural and educational events, encourage everyone with Polish roots to get involved in the activities of the organization, and celebrate and share our Polish heritage, language, and culture with the public.
Among its first initiatives is a creative campaign providing easily accessible information about Poles who have left a lasting mark on the America’s history and society. This initiative, which will be featured this October, during Polish American Heritage Month, is meant to spark curiosity about Poland among residents and raise awareness about the Polish community in this region.
The newly formed Polish American Society of Greenville, SC will be an exciting new chapter for South Carolina’s Polonia.
📊 Prosimy o wypełnienie anonimowej ankiety, która pomoże nam w naszej działalności 👀
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