UKELODEON: For The Next Generation (10/08/06)

UKELODEON

For The Next Generation

Whippany SUM youths recognized for achieving counselor status

by Darka Mosuriak

WHIPPANY, N.J. - Six members of the Whippany branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) were recognized for achieving counselor status during a recent branch assembly.

Roman Kovbasniuk, 16, Matthew Shashkewycz, 17, Adam Klymko, 17, Mykola Kucyna, 16, and Michael Ushak, 16, were recognized as "vporiadnyky," while Katia Kleban, 17, was recognized as a "vykhovnyk." or higher-ranking counselor.

Miss Kleban has been very active in the Whippany branch, working with its youth. She has completed three years of "vyshkilnyi tabir," which gives her the opportunity to lead her own "riy," or group of SUM youths.

Messrs. Klymko, Kovbasniuk, Kucyna, Shashkewycz and Ushak have all attended either one or two years of "vyshkilnyi tabir," which gives them the opportunity to work side-by-side with "vykhovnyky" during their weekly meetings with SUM youths.

The leaders of the Whippany branch of SUM noted that its members are very proud of these young people, whose hard work and dedication are evident as they work with younger children every week during regular Monday meetings.

The six share not only their time and experience, but also put their own twist on programs that demonstrate how much fun it is to be in SUM and to be Ukrainian.

"Tabir Ptashat" Plast camp for preschoolers held in Ohio

by Darka Lassowsky Nebesh

MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio - This year at Pysanyi Kamin, the Tabir Ptashat (preschoolers' camp), called "My Muzykanty" (We Are Musicians), focused on the rich musical heritage of Ukraine. The camp was led and organized by Dr. Darka Lassowsky Nebesh. The campers sang songs, listened to various traditional instruments, and enjoyed live music played on a flute, violin, and bandura. The ptashata made their own magical conducting batons so that they would always be able to make music wherever they go. Every July for one week children age 3-6, sleep in tents with their parents and enjoy an all-day program of Plast activities, organized and led by the parents themselves. It is a week for the preschool crowd to make friends, many whom will be camping together in the future at sleep-away camps for novatstvo (age 7-11) and yunatstvo (age 12-18). Ptashata parents enjoy reliving camping days from their youth and make new friends from across the country. "My Muzykanty" was blessed to have 38 preschoolers along with their siblings and parents who added up to a camp of 90 plus people. Highlights included singing, swimming, campfires, crafts and a trip to a local nature center where the ptashata had a chance to come face to face with live hawks and owls.

A Plast member's reflections on "crash course" in counselor training

by Natalka Tarasiuk

NORTH COLLINS, N.Y. - A "crash course" in training to be a "novatskyi vykhovnyk" (counselor to boys and girls age 7-11) is how Vyshkil Novatskykh Vykhovnykiv 2006 was described to this year's participants. Rumors had it that this was one of the more difficult Plast training courses, so all of the 50-some campers were nervous and anxious as the camp began at the Novyi Sokil Plast campground near Buffalo, N.Y., on June 24.

This nervousness and fear is what led to the selection of the camp's theme.

Our komendantka (camp director), Marusia Borkowska, and "vykhovnyky" (counselors) repeatedly reminded us not to be scared, and assured us that we would be able to complete all the tasks assigned us.

During our first campfire, after hearing a tale about fear, we decided on a camp name: "Ne Smiye Buty v Nas Strakhu" (Fear Within Us Is Not Permitted). To go with this theme the "royi" (subgroups) called themselves things like the "Baby Yagy" and "Quiet Darkness" - all typical things a "novak" or "novachka" would be afraid of.

Several times throughout the camp we switched roles from acting like Plast kids to acting like "sestrychky" and "bratchyky" (counselors). We learned a lot from spending 10 days together, focusing on topics like providing good leadership examples and cultivating scouting skills. Our lectures and discussions ranged from creating fun and educational games, crafts and songs for children, to safety and meeting planning.

Our assignments were just as diverse. We learned about what seemed like a very systematic approach to dealing with children. All the meetings were to be planned out to every detail and the order of activities mattered, as well as the theme tying them all together.

We all loved those "spoluchnyky" (connections). Not only were they very important to master for our own meetings, but they were also worth most of the points for the assignments. We all searched our brains to find similarities that could somehow connect a song about a princess made out of chocolate to an arts and crafts session making pine-cone bird feeders.

Speaking of the grading, it was very systematic and as fair as possible. We earned points for language, behavior, initiative and good deeds, as well as points for written and oral assignments. We wrote three plans for our meetings, each having a different theme. They either followed a "vmilist" (merit badge), a "proba" (skills acquired in achieving ranks in novatstvo) or an "istorychna hra" (history-themed game).

We also prepared a full-year plan, including the theme of each meeting that month, and we planned a day trip. Each of these plans was written out so our instructors could grade them and make sure we included all the important elements. We also led a group game and told our royi "a rozpovid" (story) to get graded. So, our days were spent mostly learning about elements of novatstvo, writing our assignments and bonding with friends.

Each day, however, we had a little break during singing, which was conducted as if we were all in novatstvo, in order to learn by example. We learned hand motions to many songs and sang a lot of new songs, as well as old songs we rememembered from our childhood.

I hope that everything that we learned will enable us to handle our own novatski royi so we can give the next generation of Ukrainian novaky and novachky the same, or even better, amazing experience we had!

Natalka Tarasiuk, 16, is a yunachka (Plast scout age 12-17) in Philadelphia's 4th Kurin (unit) named in honor of Olha Basarab. She says she is excited about becoming a "sestrychka" in the near future and really enjoyed the challenges posed to the participants of year's counselor's training course.

Mishanyna

To solve this week's Mishanyna find the names of the 14 largest cities in Ukraine hidden in the Mishanyna grid.

Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Luhansk, Makiivka, Vinnytsia, Symferopol

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