Practical tools
Run a workshop
Gather friends, family, a classroom or a club for a good-old-fashioned group effort. Here’s what works, from workshops we’ve run ourselves.
Before the day
The supplies, the samples and the phrases, all ready before anyone sits down.
Know your group
Ages and writing confidence shape everything – some ten-year-olds turn out to be the bravest Ukrainian-writers in the room.
Gather supplies
Pens, fine coloured markers, crayons, fun stickers or washi tape, and postcard-weight cards – craft stores carry blanks. Need free cards? Contact us – leave time for the mail.
Pre-write sample cards
A couple of very simple ones for children, a couple for adults. They exist to prove it’s okay to keep it simple – and to print, not write in cursive.
Phrases on the table
Print the phrase list for the table, or have people open the phrasebook on their phones and hear the phrases aloud.
On the day
How the hour itself tends to go, from the first minute to the last.
Take a minute to remind everyone why they’re there and who will hold these cards.
Pass your samples around and invite people to borrow from them.
Encourage one or two phrases in Ukrainian. The effort is the point – it doesn’t have to be perfect.
A little snack is nice.
The blank-card moment
Every workshop hits it: what do I write? This is the stage-setting that unlocks it.
Imagine … you are stuck in a dark, cold, uncomfortable place. It’s noisy from shelling. You’ve been there for months, and you miss your family, good food and a warm bed. Then the mail arrives – and someone, somewhere far away, has tried to write to you in Ukrainian. Even if the letters are a bit wonky, even if they make you laugh: someone cared enough to try. For you.
An easy first line
Most people start with Ви – герої (“you are heroes”) – simple to copy, and it says something real.
Then colour
Add your own words, then a blue-and-yellow heart, a sunflower, etc. The card needs no real stamp or address.
Stuck? Stickers
For anyone staring at a blank card, stickers and washi tape are a kindness.
Afterwards
What to send us once the cards are written.
Share a photo or two – workshop pictures in the newsletter are what inspire the next workshop.
Mail them to: Postcards to the Front, P. O. Box 184, Millbrook, ON L0A 1G0 CANADA. Pop your name and email in the envelope so we can tell you they arrived.