Rockford volunteers help their sister city, Brovary
by Deanna T. Yurchuk
PARSIPPANY, N.J. - In the spring of 1994, a group of volunteers traveled from Rockford, Ill., to their sister city, Brovary, Ukraine, in order to build a new playground, the only one of its kind in the country, and to spread God's word to the city's children.
The two areas hold a strong bond because, in addition to being sister cities, they also have sister parishes; the First Evangelical Free Church in Rockford and the First Baptist Church in Brovary. The mission of the volunteers was twofold: to provide hours of fun for the children and to teach them about their faith. The Rockford team gave each child in the city (over 14,000) a Bible and prepared a special program of puppets, staging and sound in order to illustrate bible stories for them.
Seeing the excitement in the children's eyes, brought so much satisfaction to the volunteers, that on their trip home they began planning the construction of another playground in Brovary, a suburb of Kyiv. Soon afterwards, they formed an organization called "Kids Around the World," which lists as its main objective "to put as many smiles on as many faces of as many children as they possibly can."
To date, Kids Around the World has built 17 playgrounds in seven different countries. Out of the 17, four are found in Ukraine. The other countries include: Bosnia, Honduras, Ghana, India, Cuba and Vietnam.
"It takes a week for a team of our volunteers to build a playground, and then we usually stay a few days longer in order to train local citizens how to use the flannelgraphs (the scenery and puppets) when teaching the children about God's love," said Kids Around the World President Jim Rosene. "The children love the bible stories. They are colorful, interesting and each holds a moral that crosses over denominational lines," he continued.
All of the playgrounds are constructed by the volunteers, who pay their own way and take vacation time just to be part of the team. The organization's volunteer base now has 200 workers. "Every few years, we send volunteers back to revisit the communities and repair the playgrounds. We ask the workers we've trained in the various countries to report back to us every three months. If we receive reports, we send more volunteers to continue training local citizens and bring additional resources," Mr. Rosene explained.
The playgrounds include 12 swings, six slides, spring cars, a log roll, a merry-go-round, a major play structure, teeter-totter, a volleyball court and a half-court basketball area. Also included are park benches, picnic tables and landscaping of the area with trees, grass, bushes and flowers.
For Mr. Rosene, making children smile is a full time job. "Being able to give something to children - who because of poor economic conditions or war conflicts cannot experience the joy of childhood - is an amazing feeling."
To learn more about this program, log on to http://www.kidsaroundtheworld.com/, or e-mail [email protected].
| Ukraine | United States |
| Alushta | Santa Cruz, Calif. |
| Bohodukhiv | Boyertown, Pa. |
| Brovary | Rockford, Ill. |
| Cherkasy | Santa Rosa, Calif. |
| Chernivtsi | Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Dniprovsky District, Kyiv | Evanston, Ill. |
| Donetsk | Pittsburgh, Pa. |
| Drohobych | Buffalo, N.Y. |
| Horivka | Pensacola, Fla. |
| Kharkiv | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Kherson | Kent, Wash. |
| Khmelnytskyi | Modesto, Calif. |
| Kyiv | Chicago, Ill. |
| Lviv | Corning, N.Y. |
| Myrhorod | Randolph, Vt. |
| Odesa | Baltimore, Md. |
| Poltava | Irondequoit, N.Y. |
| Shpola | Oscaloosa, Iowa |
| Smila | Newton, Iowa |
| Ternopil | Yonkers, N.Y. |
| Uman | Davis, Calif. |
| Uzhhorod | Corvallis, Ore. |
| Yalta | Santa Barbara, Calif. |
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 1, 2001, No. 13, Vol. LXIX
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