Building a Music Camp for Ukrainian Refugee Youth

Friday,  August 11th: We're sitting tight on an eight-hour flight from JFK, New York to WAW, Warsaw, Poland, with almost no idea what to expect. We heard just a week and a half ago about the program our friends were planning to do for a week in Poland, volunteering at a summer camp for Ukrainian refugees, and as soon as they mentioned the empty spots on their team, we looked to see if we could join them. By a stroke of pure luck, we were able to book tickets to join them. 

We've already planned all the possible activities we could bring to fascinate these kids, and packed three extra suitcases full of the necessary material: sketchbooks, pens, pencils, playing cards, board games, balloons, disco balls... everything we could possibly need (that we could fit in a suitcase). When we land, we're going straight to the nearest music shop to pick up the guitars, basses, drum kit, keyboard, and amps we're going to need for the coming days.

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We picked out all kinds of instruments...Electric Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Bass Guitars, Amps, Pedals, and everything else you need to play...

Global Volunteers has been helping kids in this community to learn English for over 30 years. The amazing program made it so we arrived all set with government officials helping us with everything we needed. Our amazing government contacts drove all the equipment to the community center where we’d spend the week in a town known as Stary Kzresk (pronounced Kchesk).

We arrived at the camp on Sunday, the day before the program was set to start, unpacked all the gear, and set the room for Rock Camp. 

Jane drew the official Rock Camp sign.

We were told most of the Ukrainian campers didn't speak any English, so for our 1st lesson...

That night we created the A-Z's of Rock n' Roll, hoping we would teach the English alphabet and the History of Rock at the same time. 

We would definitely be ready to rock Monday morning...

Under each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet, we wrote the most important bands and artists of all time that started with that letter. Then, the campers filled in their favorites. 

We interviewed every camper and found that we had both existing musicians and newbies who had never even picked up a guitar. We didn’t care. We would teach them all in the little time we had. 

The next day we let them choose their own instrument from the many models we bought. 

Georgia brought equipment from home, including a case of mini bread pans we used to use for Pumpkin Breads. The daily baking class became a hit with all the kids.

Each camper baked their own Olive Oil Cake and took it home in the pan.

Over the next week, we taught guitar lessons, keyboard lessons, drum lessons.

 

We taught kids to teach other kids....

And put together a band that was ready to play for the Friday night closing event of the summer program. 

Of course, since the closing event had to be about fun for everyone (not just musicians), we had to go beyond just a concert. 

So we worked together with the administrators, our other volunteers and campers...Saying “Yes and…” to every idea. 

And built what, in the end, was a 7-hour event that only wrapped when it started to rain just before midnight. 

Our Run of Show:

Even the Mayor showed up to say thanks

We also screened a video recap of the week that Jane made

We ended the night with a 4-hour dance party, disco balls, and sparklers. Everyone had a blast, and we even learned some Ukrainian pop songs.

It was a great night. A few tears, but so many smiles. Parents of kids came to the stage to thank us personally. The next day we saw on Instagram some of the kids posting on their feeds that it was “The Best Day of my Life”, which felt pretty crazy. 

We knew going in that we’d give it our all, and that we’d hold nothing back. But we had no idea how it would be received. Or how much joy we could create from scratch. 

It could not have been a better night. We will never forget the smiles on these kids faces as they headed off to bed late that night. At the beginning of the week, the kids were pretty shy and clearly unable to forget the horrors at home. But seeing them at the end of the week, laughing and dancing, letting loose, was one of the most rewarding scenes one could witness. And we feel so lucky to have been able to help these kids de-stress in such a terrible time. 

Looking back at the end of the week, we knew, at the very least, we would help build a music studio that would live on long after we left. We had said at the beginning that if we could connect with even just one kid…and maybe give some hope and a break from the anxiety and fear of the war, it would be a true win. 

And reviewing the events of the week, we think we did that. A few times over. 

Would we do it again? Absolutely.

Will we do it again? Definitely.

Going into an experience like this, there’s no way to know what kinds of people you’re going to be working with. The key to making sure you fulfill your duty as a volunteer is to be flexible; always be adaptable to the situation, and know how to run with things when they don’t go your way. The goal with Global Volunteers is to get the kids you’re working with to have a good time, and that should always be priority #1.

A huge thanks to all of you who sent cash our way! We couldn’t have done it without you.

And it WILL live on. We ended up working with a local musician (shout out to Konrad!) and music teacher who is now overseeing the equipment and will use it well into the future with more kids.

To celebrate this unforgettable week, we will be making a donation to our host non-profit, Global Volunteers. And we hope you will too: DONATE!

Global Volunteers has been running programs for 30 years and has opportunities both short and long term available in 13 countries, plus the U.S. We highly recommend packing a bag and jumping on board: https://globalvolunteers.org/#countries

Hope we get to do it again next year!                                                                                                          – Jane & Georgia

Best of Camp Unger!