We were invited in June to set up a Postcards to the Front table at the Odesa Pavilion for the Oshawa Fiesta Week celebrations; a celebration of Oshawa’s many cultures held each year in Oshawa for over fifty years.

Visitors wrote a couple of hundred beautiful messages of support for Ukraine’s Defenders. Many, in Ukrainian. Including the Mayor of Oshawa and several area Councillors, Miss Odesa and Miss Krakow.

All week, we watched the Odesa Dancers perform, including their powerfully evocative finale, “The Heart of Ukraine.” We ate way too many cabbage rolls, varenyky (pierogi), shishkabob, and borscht (no, you can never eat too much borscht!). And we met a lot of very kind and caring people, including the folks at other tables, selling wares as fundraisers to support Ukraine.

On learning that our dear founder in Ukraine, Tamara, had an upcoming birthday, a group of ‘table-sitters’ wrote her some nice birthday greetings. On postcards, of course.

And I wanted to send Tamara something special from the week. Yes, the postcards were special, of course. But something for Tamara.

So, I bought her the t-shirt celebrating 50 years of Odesa Pavilion. From Oshawa, Ontario. 🙂

It has arrived!

Doesn’t she look happy in her unexpected birthday gift from Canada?