Heritage Month Day 28

Monday, September 28 – Crowd of Supporters

Since our founding in April 2023, we have shipped more than 27,000 written postcards to Defenders of Ukraine. Cards have been written all across Canada and elsewhere, including in the United States, Central America, South America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. With our sister branch in Australia sending more than 28,000 cards, that’s more than 55,000 postcard messages of support for Defenders of Ukraine from all over the world.

Great job postcard warriors! Every one of you is making a difference on a hard day at the front lines.

I often write on my cards Канада ЗА вас – Canada stands with you. Or, ми разом – We are together.

You can also write наша країна ЗА Україну – Our country stays with Ukraine.

We have many useful Ukrainian phrases translated for you in our Ukrainian phrasebook.

Today, I thought I’d try to convey the idea of collective support / togetherness in a drawing.

This effort goes way outside my comfort zone; but, for the first time in my long life I have been thinking about art and doing art daily for four weeks, not forgetting the weeks of planning our Ukrainian Heritage Month campaign. So, today I decided to go beyond doodles and florals and my simple child-like efforts. I decided to try to draw a group of people.

It wasn’t easy finding something that I felt I could handle, but I did with @harrison.how. And now that I’ve done it, I’m super glad that I made the effort! As the artist suggests that “you make it your own” I set the Ukrainian flag as the feature of the crowd’s attention so the blue/yellow jumps out on the card.

I hope that the Defender who receives this card smiles at this one-of-a-kind piece of art! 😉

What you need to draw a crowd

• postcard (of course!)
• pencil (eraser … in case you need), black gel pen
• any colours that you might want to use to personalize your scene.

Go to @harrison.how on Instagram and follow the easy step-by-step instructions. Like flower petals, he builds the crowd, layer by layer, starting with shapes in the foreground.

Here’s my effort. I chose one of our Love, from Canada beaver brigade postcards [russian embassy protesters] because, well, it’s a crowd of Canadian supporters for Defenders of Ukraine.

Tomorrow … a maple leaf.

Each day through Ukrainian Heritage Month, we share an easy-to-do creative idea that you can try on your postcards to Defenders. 30 days. 30 cards. Simple art.

Our Ultimate Heritage Challenge to you, dear postcard warriors: one postcard per day during September. Try some of the postcard art ideas we offer through this month. Prizes will be drawn for three winners who have tried at least three different ideas that we’ve shared through the month of September. We’ll know because your cards will ‘show’ us.

Deadline: we must receive your Ukrainian Heritage Month challenge postcards in our mailbox by October 20.

Share your creative ideas with us, and any other ways in which you acknowledge Ukrainian Heritage Month.

Email your ideas and images to us along with a brief explanation and we’ll share: postcardstothefront.canada@gmail.com

Tag us on Instagram, Facebook, Threads. We’d love to share your stories with others. Don’t forget to tag the creators whose ideas you use.

IG and Threads: @postcardstothefront_canada   @ukrainian.heritage.month @harrison.how

Facebook: ukrainianheritagemonthontario * uccontario

Tags: #ukrainianheritagemonth #ukrainianheritagemonthontario #standwithukraine #canadaukraine #postcardstothefrontcanada #postcardart