Batkivschyna gets ready to sail again

KYIV - The Ukrainian gaff schooner Batkivschyna is participating in Toronto Harbor's "Parade of Lights" from June 28 through July 2. The Batkivschyna is scheduled to arrive and dock behind the Harbour Castle Hilton next to the Toronto Island Ferry docks on Thursday afternoon, July 28.

The public is invited to come out and welcome the captain and the crew to Toronto. The ship received wide acclaim last year during the Operation Sail 2000 tall ship festival on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

This summer the Batkivshchyna and its crew have been invited to participate in the Tall Ships Challenge 2001, a series of tall ships festivals organized by the American Sail Training Association, with public visits scheduled for Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and other cities.

The ship has also been invited to take part in various other tall ships festivals, as well as the Friendship Festival on July 4 in Buffalo, N.Y.

The ship's captain has entered into a formal agreement with Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund to help raise funds for their humanitarian missions in Ukraine.

Toronto's Parade of Lights is a boating festival in which all the boats are decorated with lights, with prize money going to winners in various classes. (For additional information visit the website at www.paradeoflights.com.)

Currently the Batkivschyna has Christmas lights to illuminate the bowsprit to the top of the masts and down to the stern, as well as strings of lights that go from the top of the masts to the deck. The crew has asked for donations of additional tiny Christmas lights.

For further details or to arrange group sails in Toronto Harbor contact [email protected].

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 10, 2001, No. 23, Vol. LXIX

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