Monday 13 August 2012

Summer Camp for Calgary's Ukrainian Scouts - PLAST

Such a refreshing summer for a Scouts Camp - Ukrainian Alberta style.  Whether it is the youthful program, the enthusiastic leadership, or the almost "extreme" scouting they have been able to coax out of the teens, for a lot of good reasons, the Ukrainian Scouting movement has captured my admiration. 

Storoschuk
The Ukrainian Scouts - Plast, is the same organization as SCOUTS CANADA, with Baden Powell as the founder.  The Ukrainian Scouting program begin a hundred years ago, then travelled with the post WWII immigrants to all corners of her diaspora community.  Plast Ukrainian Scouts has been in Calgary since the 1980's, and it is indeed a wonderful program for personal development and community involvement. Though a small center, Calgary PLAST has grown, in part because of the influx of new people, but also because it has embraced children of old immigrant families such as mine. 
Weekly activities are like scouts everywhere, with lessons about the world, crafts, sports, charitable works, and cultural activities.  The summer camps are flat out amazing.  The director of the summer camp for the younger children, (held this year at Camp Bar-vi-nok at Pigeon Lake, Alberta) Roman Storoschuk of Calgary, told me they had a fantastic leader to camper ratio this year, the children had lots of care and attention at the water, and during the sometimes tricky crafts activities.  They were pirates this year!



And the program is delivered in a refreshingly sweet and nurturing kind of Ukrainian language that makes every family happy.  Kids songs, child friendly skits, silly camp routines, campfire activities, all in Ukrainian. 

When the little ones advance to the teen groups, they take an oath to the Ukrainian "idea", not a political nor ideological oath. It is such a sweet and romantic "love for my ancestral home" promise that I believe every politician in Ukraine should take this oath.  It could even change the politics a bit!

In any case, if you are interested in a fabulous Scouting program, delivered in Calgary in Ukrainian, consider the contacts below.

http://plast.ca/about/about-en/index.shtml

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