Jeff Roof
Troop leader Alexandra Chalupa with her two oldest daughters, Mika Roof, 5, and Sophia Roof, 8, who is in the troop.
WASHINGTON – On Sunday, February 22, Girl Scout Brownie Troop 4883 presented an exhibit on Ukraine at this year’s World Thinking Day celebration in Washington. The event took place at the Blessed Sacrament School auditorium in Northwest D.C. and had about 150 to 200 attendees and participants.
Every year, girl scouts come together to celebrate World Thinking Day – the day they think about and honor sister Girl Scouts and Girl Guides in other countries. Girl Scouts U.S.A. is part of a global community – one of nearly 150 countries with Girl Scouts and Girl Guides, including Ukraine. Thinking Day is traditionally celebrated on or near February 22, the birthday of both Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Boys Scouts and Girl Guides, and Lady Olave Baden-Powell, who was a leader in both the scout and guide movements.
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) selected as this year’s theme United Nations Millennium Development Goal 8: “Develop a global partnership for development.” Girls worldwide say, “We can create peace through partnerships.”
Alexandra Chalupa
Julia Rosenthal who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine in 1992, and her daughter Anneliese Rosenthal, 7.
This year, the ethnically diverse Grade 2 Murch Elementary School Brownie Troop 4883 chose to honor Ukraine because of Ukraine’s developing democracy and determination to become a strong global partner for development, despite Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine that has left more than 5,000 people dead and more than 1 million displaced. It was also an opportunity to honor the fallen heroes of Ukraine on the first anniversary of the Maidan – the peaceful movement of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians that eventually led to the overthrow of Ukraine’s corrupt government.
Two of the 14 girls in Troop 4883 are of Ukrainian heritage: 8-year-old Sophia Roof, whose mother, first-generation Ukrainian American Alexandra Chalupa, is the troop leader, and 7-year-old Anneliese Rosenthal, whose Ukrainian American mother Julia Rosenthal is of Jewish heritage. Ms. Chalupa’s grandparents were from Odesa and Donetsk, and her parents were born in displaced persons camps in Germany before immigrating to the U.S. when they were young children. Ms. Rosenthal was born in Cherkasy and immigrated to the United States in 1992. Alexandra and Julia were the lead organizers working with the girls in the troop on their Ukraine project.
Alexandra Chalupa
Brownie Troop 4883 makes a presentation about Ukraine at Girl Scout World Thinking Day in Washington.
The presentation included a booth display with photos and artifacts covering three topics: basic facts about Ukraine, Ukrainian culture, and Ukrainian children and scouting in Ukraine. To prepare for the presentation, the girls learned about Ukraine in their troop meetings. They watched videos of traditional Ukrainian dancing and music, made headdresses (vinky) that they wore at the event, studied and selected pictures to include in their display, learned about the Maidan, and discussed what they had heard in the news about the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Embassy provided some of the books and materials for the troop to use in the display and helped promote the event.
The Girl Scout troop also conducted an interview with children close to their age living in Ukraine’s capita, Kyiv: 8-year-old Stepan Teluk and 5-year-old Solomiya Teluk. The girls worked together as a group to come up with the interview questions, asking about favorite foods and toys, hobbies, school, as well as about the war and the Maidan and how the crisis in Ukraine has impacted the children. Several of the girls participated in a Skype interview with Stepan and Solomiya, with their father, Peter Teluk, as the translator.
The answers to the interview questions were then turned into a story told in the first-person by each of the girl scouts presenting a part of what life may be like for a child her age living in Kyiv. During the presentation, each girl wore her vinok and Girl Scout sash while holding a photo representing the part of the story she read. During the interview, Stepan had worn his Plast uniform, so one of the photos used was of Plast scouts to teach the audience about Ukraine’s most popular scouting organization.
Sophia Roof, 8, shows other Girl Scouts some of her favorite photos from the display the children helped make.
In addition to photos of maps, Ukrainian foods and the Maidan, there was also a photo of My Little Pony. Throughout the Skype interview, even though the children from the U.S. and Ukraine didn’t speak the same language, they enjoyed directly communicating by showing each other their favorite toys, and it turned out that Solomiya shares the same passion for My Little Ponies as the girls in Washington.
A photo of Ukrainian children drawing pictures for Ukrainian soldiers was the image used to represent the war, as Stepan shared some of the many ways he and other children in Ukraine do their part to help their country, including donating clothes and helping their parents raise money and medical supplies.
The presentation started with the image of a Ukrainian flag in the introduction and ended with a peace symbol in Ukrainian colors. During the interview, Stepan told the girls “I think Ukraine will win. Ukraine will win. There will be peace again.”