Summer Camp 2013
From the 14th of July to the 2nd of August our traditional Summer camp took place. It was the fourth time that it ran at Sorochany resort near Moscow. This time the camp hosted children from orphanage №28 and pupils from Beslan school №1.
We warmly thank all those who made this camp possible:
Charitable Fund “Chance For Life” and personally Olga Makharinskaya, Elena Ragozhina and Karina Baldry; Charitable Fund “Dar”; Telf Ag Company (Switzerland) and personally Irina Chislova; Itella Corporation and personally Evgenia Eliseeva; Moscow Committee of Public Relations; Olga Muravieva and her friends from Art-Club KAMERTON; Utair Airlines; volunteers from Alfa-Bank and personally Tatiana Pasko; Administration of “Sorochany” resort.
Thank you, our dear volunteers, teachers from Moscow and Beslan and all the children!
This year we had a lot of new beginnings. Firstly, the camp ran in two sessions. In the first session there were only children from orphanage №28, with high school students from Beslan helping as volunteers; and for the second there were children from the same orphanage, 4th grade pupils from Beslan school and the same Beslan volunteers.
Also for the first time we succeeded in getting the orphanage’s permission to lodge children in separate “families” and not in bulk, as usually. This helped us, as never before, to feel as a real family, become closer to each other and build deeper friendships between the grown-ups and the children.
The weather wasn’t gentle with us and we didn’t even have an opportunity to swim and ride a “banana”, even though each day was filled with diverse activities from morning to late evening.
The morning started with a family breakfast,
after which we had master-classes. Here is an approximate list of them: painting a collective picture and modeling from clay,
culinary and juggling,
oil painting en plein-air
and decorating big carton boxes with acrylic colors,
designing masks and hats, making wind chimes and friendship bracelets, playing drums and guitar,
inventing and making performances,
creating compositions from natural materials and felt,
separate waste collection and creating art-objects from recyclable waste,
decorating fabric bags and t-shirts.
The children had a lucky opportunity to join classes lead by Vasily Lednev, Natasha Pershina and their friends, in the course of which they could participate in showing physics experiments and creating a toy-ship or a rocket.
At one of the week-ends a team of Alfa-Bank volunteers visited our camp.
They organized a braid-weaving master-class, presented a mini-lecture to our girls about skin and hair care.
Meanwhile, the boys practiced on the football field and then invited our guests to play football. Moreover, these volunteers brought our children very nice presents and treated the whole camp with a delicious barbeque!
After lunch, Elephants, Zebras, Lions and Giraffes began their family lives.
Each family had its unique atmosphere, its favorite activities, it’s own adventures and joys.
Together the family members made performances,
shot funny films,
played active and developmental games
and celebrated birthdays.
The families paid visits to each other, arranged mutual “spa nights”
and “mad hairdo discos”
and once together we did improvised theatre.
In the evenings, all the families gathered together to demonstrate what each of them had prepared during master-classes or family time, and to see other families’ achievements.
The day always ended up with a family tea-party during which everyone could share their feelings and impressions of the passing day. These days became unforgettable for all of us, both children and grown-ups.
We are very grateful to our wonderful volunteers – people, who used their holidays, week-ends andvacation time (and for many it’s not the first time) to come to our camp and live this small part of the summer with us, making it bright and soulful.
THANK YOU, Oxana Yushko, Artur Bondar, Theo and Bregje Schilder, Polina Proskurina, Ira Baranova, Anya and Asya Segalovich, Debbie Sears, Nadin Smolyanitskaya, Tanya Boich, Olya Eliseeva, Masha Dermicheva, Tanya Khvorostyuk, Nadya and Ira Gurieva, Olga and Natasha Sidorovs, Katya Panfilova, Hetag Khutiev, Azamat Kadiev, Timur Ganiev, Hetag Dudaev, Vitya and Vika Kotsoevs, Eliza Gochieva, Kambolat Baev, Tamik Kachmazov, Liza Gvozdik, Tamik Tebiev, Gayane Oganesyan, Polina Loseva, Serezha Aristarkhov, Timofey Astakhov, Petya Starokadomsky, Erika Stepanyan, Tamara Krapivina, Olya Alexyuk, Vika Dzenisevich, Marina Bitsoeva, Igor Naniev, Sveta Kozyreva, Andrey Nikitaev, Vanya Antonov, Misha Yanovich, Serezha Shuldikov, Dima Savetnikov, Valya and Masha Mironovs, Pasha Novichkov, Masha Orlova, Vladimir Todres!
And a personal THANK YOU from all the camp participants to our tireless chief cook Verochka, always ready to make feast of feasts, and to all who helped at the kitchen!
Photos by Oxana Yushko, Natasha Khassanova, Yulia Loseva. You can find more photos in our group at Facebook.
