Recreational summer camp @ Veselka

Hartujs’ and Welcome to Camp Veselka!

This year’s summer camp at Veselka, near Acton, Ontario, took place from July 16 to August 6, 2016 and honoured those who fought and continue to fight to protect and defend Ukraine’s freedom in this her 25^th Anniversary of Independence. The camper’s learned about events that lead up to the Declaration of Independence as well as events that have followed. The campers were so inspired that they even named their cabins in honour of their chosen “heroes”.

During the three-week camp, the campers enjoyed a variety of activities that included sports, sing-a-longs, arts & crafts, nature training and swimming. Among the most memorable crafts were pinecone owls, making turtles, learning to cross-stitch and designing camp badges. The older boys and girls left Veselka for a 3 day camp-out at Rockwood and the entire camp took in a Toronto Argonauts soccer game. Another great camp outing was at Air Riderz Trampoline Park and Silvercreek.

We had quite a few guests that came out to Veselka like Dr. Brain and Mad Science that thought us about wind, friction and gravity. “Hands on Exotics” brought out some cool critters for us to interact with like rabbits, scorpions, a mountain chicken and kangaroo.   We also could sign up for workshops in painting, clay sculpting, making jams and candles, playing hockey and soccer and much more!

Some interesting events that took place were “Mr. & Mrs. Veselka”, weekly bonfires, Evening of Tricks, Village Olympics, Chornobyl Attack. Our group leaders recreated “Maidan” in the parking lot to help us learn about the events of 2014 in Ukraine. We slept there, had snacks and listened to lectures about “Maidan”. In the wee hours of the night, Berkut ‘attacked us’ and the games began.

I think the three-week camp was very successful and fun for everyone.

See you next year at Veselka!

Oksana Stech

The camp’s daily blogs you will find here: https://lemko.cym.org/ca-weselka 

Additional pictures from the 1st and 2nd weeks of camp you will find in our gallery.

Pictures of the 3rd week, due to the migration of  ‘Picassa web albums’ to ‘Google photo albums”, you will find here: https://goo.gl/photos/YWBJRHTKoKzuPmcj7

A short video of this year’s camp, you can view below: