PHOTOS - Seedrioru Estonian Children’s Summer Camp 2021

PHOTOS – Seedrioru Estonian Children’s Summer Camp 2021

Jul 9, 2021 Estonian Life No. 27 2021

On July 6th I had the pleasure of visiting the Seedrioru Estonian Children’s Summer Camp near Elora Ontario. The purpose of my visit was two-fold. First to provide some art instruction to the campers and secondly to introduce them to the game of chess.

With the art instruction I showed them perekonnamärgid (family markings from Estonia) and also some of the brands used by large cattle herd owners to identify their livestock. Each camper was given the task to come up with their own family marking based on the first letters of their first and second name.

They all came up with excellent designs. Next, using acrylic colours, I then asked them all to create three solid circles using primary colours and have them overlapping. Highlights were added using the black and white colours.

For the older children, I also asked them to sketch both Häli and Sten wearing Viking props like a helmet, shield and sword. We definitely have some artists in the groups.

After a delicious lunch of mini pizzas and salad we held two chess tournaments for the campers. Since most of the campers already knew the rules of the game I decided to run two mini tournaments for the two age groups. Each tournament was 4 rounds of 15 minutes each. The winner was decided by accumulated opponent’s pieces. The winners for the Junior campers were: Hudson 1st place, tied for second Halle and Tanner, tied for third Hazel and Gwenny. The winners for the Senior campers were: Brendan 1st place, second place Joosep and tied for third place Wynter and Sten.

Kudos to Karen Must and the entire Summer camp staff and counsellors for providing such an activity laden day for the campers. Thank you to both Häli and Sten who provided piano background classical music during the art sessions. The music added so much to strengthen the creative spirit in each of the campers during the art session. It was a good day.

Jaak Järve, Toronto

PHOTOS by Jaak Järve