International Plast Jamboree '98 brings 700 to the center of the continent (08/09/98)

International Plast Jamboree '98 brings 700 to the center of the continent

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WINNIPEG - They started arriving on the morning of Tuesday, July 29, and kept streaming down the escalators until close to 700 members of Plast from around the world had landed at Winnipeg International Airport in the one day. They came from across Canada, and from the United States, Argentina, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Germany and France.

The "Plastuny," as those who belong to the Ukrainian scouting group are called, came to Manitoba for the International Plast Jamboree '98, a gathering held every five years someplace around the globe where the Ukrainian youth organization is active. Manitoba is the site because this year marks the 50th anniversary of Plast's founding in Canada - in Winnipeg in 1948. For the first week (phase I) of the jamboree, the mostly 11- to-18-year-old youths participated in seven different canoeing, biking and hiking camps in the Spruce Woods, Whiteshell and Nopiming provincial parks, and the Vermillion River Outfitters Camp.

During phase II (August 5-9) all participants were to camp at Bird's Hill Provincial Park northeast of Winnipeg, where the opening ceremonies of the International Plast Jamboree '98, various activities, a moleben and a jubilee bonfire were to take place.

More than 200 volunteers

The organizing committee, headed by Sophia Kachor, began planning the 1998 jamboree more than two and a half years ago. Close to 200 volunteers - both Plast members and non-members - have been working on this massive project. The organizing committee itself (36 individuals) has been supported by members of Plast-Pryiat, a "friends of Plast" support group composed of parents' and others, as well as by entire families and clans who volunteered or were volunteered to help. This writer visited the Plast building to interview volunteers and within minutes was part of the assembly line putting together individual packets (program, T-shirt, emblem pin) for the jamboree participants.

There was an atmosphere of camraderie and humor among the parents, sisters, brothers, aunts and friends of the young Plastuny at the camps, as they joked about "quality control" of proper packing. In this fairly small Plast branch based in Winnipeg, the adult Plast members (seniory) who no longer have children in Plast are either committee chairpersons or members. Others are on stand-by for whatever help is needed, while some assist wherever needed in addition to their own responsibilities.

Financial support for such an enormous undertaking was crucial, because camp and jamboree fees paid by the participants do not cover the full costs. The Fund-Raising Committee, headed by Motria Skocen, obtained funding from the government of Canada, Department of Heritage; the province of Manitoba, Government Services, and Natural Resources; and the Manitoba Multicultural Grants Advisory Council. In addition, various Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian institutions, foundations, companies and businesses, as well as individuals, provided substantial support. All supporters and donors are listed in the jamboree program.

Communications a key component

The well-illustrated publication also includes the winning jamboree songs (by Iryna Hornych, and by Olesia Chuchman to the poems of Lina Kostenko), the winning jamboree emblem (by Danylo Luciw), and histories of Plast in Canada before and after 1948, as well as the official greetings from government, religious and other leaders. The editorial board of the program book was headed by Christina Semaniuk, with Sophia Kachor and Oksana Rozumna as members.

The Marketing and Communications Committee was co-chaired by Mmes. Semaniuk and Rozumna, with responsibility for media and government contacts, publications, press releases, and any and all other external contacts. The photocopier at the Plast building was constantly in use, to the point that on Sunday it blew the building's circuitbreakers.

Monica Saryj, a "yunachka" (that is, a Plast member between the age of 11 and 18) from Winnipeg, was hired under a provincial grant to run the jamboree office. In addition to the 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. official hours of work since early summer, she volunteered many more hours per day to process and coordinate the hundreds of applications.

Because this registration included international participants, the processing was quite complicated, with medical forms, travel arrangements, parental permission forms and various insurance requirements to be coordinated. All the information was entered into the computer, and printouts on all participants were available at the airport, along with the arrival times of each group.

Miss Saryj also answered telephone and e-mail inquiries such as: Just where is Winnipeg? How big are the mosquitoes? What are J-cloths [disposable washcloths]? How cold is it in Manitoba and how many sweaters should one bring [temperatures have reached 30 degrees C]?

The Saryj family is one of the many Plast families participating 100 percent in the jamboree doings: Miss Saryj's brothers are at camp; her mother, Margareta, is coordinator of volunteers, and her father and grandmother helped in stamping envelopes. Miss Saryj says she has enjoyed her months of work, and will remember this experience as one where she spent more time each day at the Plast building than at home.

This was the first Plast jamboree for which a website was used. Demyan Hyworon is the webmaster, and the first registered visitors to the website were the Ilnyckyj family from Singapore. This well-prepared website (http://www.plast.mb.ca) included all information on the jamboree, and had links to other Plast sites, as well as tourist and historical information on Winnipeg and Manitoba. By the day after the first Plast youths arrived, parents searching the website could see photos of their children leaving for their respective camps, or at the "monster" sleep-over at Red River College. Many complimentary messages were received about Plast's use of this innovative - and yet now so common - medium.

Back at the airport

The scene at the airport was fascinating, with rows, and rows, and rows of young people with full-gear backpacks headed for the exits towards waiting vans marked "YuMPZ '98" (in Ukrainian). The first people the Plastuny descending the escalators saw were volunteer parents and other Plast members in special T-shirts. A jamboree booth and a large sign in Ukrainian welcomed the arrivals.

Ms. Kachor heard two girls on the escalator noticing the sign and expressing happiness that it was in Ukrainian and that it was for them. The organizing committee chairman said she took this as a good omen - that everything would continue going well.

The volunteer greeters made sure all baggage had arrived and was collected. Out of more than 600 arrivals, only four jamboree participants' backpacks did not arrive on time, and they did appear on subsequent flights. In the meantime, clothing and equipment had been collected to ensure that these four participants had the necessities until their packs arrived.

Outside the terminal, rows of vans driven by volunteers left as each was filled with passengers and baggage; the airport arrivals lasted all day. The Transportation Committee was headed by George Holowka - with probably every Ukrainian family van in the city in use.

But where to house them?

A major problem was how to house these hundreds of young people overnight after arrival and then have them together for departure to various camps in the early morning. Instead of billeting them in private homes or church halls all over the city, a "monster" sleep-over was organized at Red River College. The north and south gym floors were completely filled with backpacks and teenagers.

The registration committee, headed by Marta Hnatiw, was in the hallways between the two gyms, staffing tables labeled with the appropriate registration service. Some youngsters were hesistant to turn over their passports and airline tickets to the registration committee (parents had instructed them to keep them at all costs). But all documents were collected for safekeeping (better than having them float away from the canoe on a Manitoba lake or stream) and deposited in the vault of the Carpathia Credit Union.

One parent commented on how well-organized this phase was, and what a good feeling there was among the participants and visitors as they settled in and sought out old friends.

As for the campers themselves, they appeared to be adjusting well to their surroundings. By very early morning, the scouts were loading their gear and themselves on to buses headed for their respective camps throughout the province.

One of the seven camps, the biking camp was at Vermillion River Outfitters, just north of Riding Mountain National Park and close to Selo Ukraina, the site of Canada's National Ukrainian Festival in Dauphin. These campers - all 180 of them - marched with their banners in the festival parade through the town on Saturday morning of the festival.

They also attended two of the festival's concerts and especially enjoyed the Riding Kozaks and the Kubasonics, a band from Edmonton. The Kubasonics, led by Brian Cherwick, will be releasing an album ("with extra garlic" - which you can smell on the cassette).

The participants from outside the province of Manitoba can't seem to get over the flatness of the Canadian prairie (though the area near Dauphin is hilly). "There's too much sky here," said one youngster. Another asked a volunteer during the sleep-over, "Where am I? And where is Winnipeg?"

The Plastuny have much to look forward to in phase II of the International Plast Jamboree '98: the tour of Winnipeg (organized by Ostap and Tetyana Hawaleshka), Chinese Dragon Boat Races (organized by Lubomyr and Oksana Shulakewych, sponsored by Coca-Cola, and managed by Facility Marketing Group Inc.), the jubilee bonfire and much socializing, including a dance at Red River College.

Closing ceremonies are scheduled for Sunday morning August 9.

The Plast youths will leave Manitoba and Winnipeg with new and renewed friendships, and a new understanding of this part of the world.

In all likelihood, they will also know exactly where they were.