Jewish Student Cultural Center “Hillel” organized Tu Bi Shvat celebration for students, participants of Dnipro Volunteer Community and teenage club “Shahar Solomonika”. The event was called “To be eco” and had a pronounced ecological character.
The event was attended by about twenty students and eight teen club participants, who first listened to an informative lecture about ecology from DVC coordinator Alina Gorokhova. Then it was time for the main part – a creative master class by Alina Pugacheva, DVC coordinator and active DVC volunteer, on painting eco-bags-shoppers. Textile paints were used, as well as special stencils, which helped even beginners to create beautiful and neat designs and everyone was able to realize their ideas, creating original patterns and designs reflecting Jewish symbols, natural motifs and ecological themes.
“These bright and unique shoppers will be used in the future by volunteers to deliver Shabbat kits to clients of the “Chesed Menachem” charity fund,” Alena Kolpina, director of the YSCC “Hillel” told our website, “the workshop on painting eco-bags became a real space for participants to express themselves. During the master class, participants not only enjoyed creating, but also discussed the importance of conscious consumption and reducing the use of plastic bags”.
Then there was a special quest dedicated to the traditions of the Tu Bi Shvat holiday, where each of the seven stations was dedicated to one of the seven fruits for which the Land of Israel is famous. For successful completion of the stages the participants received chips with images of fruits, and at the end of the quest the teams collected their symbolic “plates” for the Tu Bi Shvat Seder.
“This holiday united students and teenagers around the important theme of ecology, allowed to show creative abilities and expand knowledge about Jewish traditions, – continues Alena Kolpina, – the action “To be eco” became the next step to the formation of a responsible attitude to the environment, and the holiday itself gave the participants bright emotions and a sense of belonging to a common history and culture”.
