THE BIG CELEBRATION AHEAD: Last preparations – Here comes
the fire brigade – The art of getting up
a tent – Welcome to the world of decorating – 99 balloons go by
THE BIG CELEBRATION: Three speeches and some tear drops –
Honor to whom honor is due – The scissors biggest moment – Fun, fun,fun – Let me take you for a
ride – A song for Pobiedna – Sweet teeth at the cake frontline – Close
encounters of the third kind – Fisherman´s sweet fortune cookies – Revenge of
the Spiderman – Come fly with me – A matter of the heart
AFTER THE BIG CELEBRATION: Everyday playground routine
sets in – An unemployed sandman – Thank you and good bye!
Early in
the morning of the grand opening, the last traces of two months of construction
work are being obliterated. Everything is supposed to be immaculate, when the
festivities start. For this purpose, half the village seems to be on its feet
very early in the day – in every corner there is someone scrubbing, sweeping
and polishing.
As always
the little ones are lending a hand. No matter how hard any blade of grass might
try to hide in the cracks of a curbstone, it gets tracked down and plucked out
without mercy. And if you have to sweep the road twice as fast, the boy with
the two brooms developed the proper technique.
Even the
local fire brigade is helping out with its professional equipment to eliminate
the tiniest speck of dust from the pavement.
To get up a
tent sure is a task of its own. It helps if there’s somebody who has a clue and
takes the lead. In this case the body language of the guy in the middle seems
to suggest that he’s the one, but…
...this
picture stirs up reasonable doubts about his competency. However, maybe it’s
just that the installation instructions were incomplete.
Here you
go! The tent stands upright, tall and straight like the Eiffel Tower. Under its
protective roof delicious cakes, cookies and tartlets prepared with love by
Pobiedna’s housewives will soon be served.
Everything
on the playground and around the playground is being decorated with a great
deal of balloons and ribbons in all colors of the rainbow. The master of
decoration, Benedikt, has just put up about a billion balloons, but there is
still no end in sight.
Fancy lampions
and paper flowers embellish this little tree. Most of the pretty decoration
items have been designed and crafted by the children of the village and members
of the LCP crew throughout the last couple of days.
Pumping up
about two times 99 balloons with helium gas takes its time. Once they are
inflated, make sure to hang on to them real tight, because they are eager to
take off and they don’t care for permission. Let’s hope the young lady on the
photo has some weights in her pockets, or at least had a good breakfast this
morning, with a sufficient amount of fiber.
Finally all
waiting comes to an end: On the stroke of 15.00 o´clock Central European Time
our charming conférencier Krzysztof goes on stage and opens the celebration with a buoyant
welcome monologue.
Krzysztof
introduces three of this afternoon’s most important notables.
…the truth
is, that they are facing a large
audience and its big expectations, as this different perspective makes
clear.
There’s no
inauguration without a ceremonial oratory. The mayor of the town Leśna, Mr. J. Surowiec, starts, followed by the chair
woman of Pobiedna, Mrs. A. Hałas – both already known to attentive blog readers
– and last but not least our Darek in his function as president of the
Holosophic Society Poland. All of them find moving words of gratitude and
appreciation and here and there in the audience a little tear is dashed away
from the corner of the eye. But who wants to hold that against anybody on a
heart-rending occasion like this one?
Above the Thank you - Letter which our President Darek received on behalf of the Polish Holosophic Society from the Mayor of Leśna. Here is the translation:
“When the child is
laughing
Laughs the whole
world.”
Janusz Korczak
Kozikowski Dariusz
Chair man of the
Polish Holosophic Society
Dear Mr. Chair man,
I would like to thank the Polish Holosophic Society situated
in Pobiedna, for building the playground in Pobiedna on its own initiative.
Your initiative and huge commitment are worth admiring and deserve the highest
praise. It is thanks to your funds and physical work, that the realization of
this investment came into being. The playing conditions and development of the small
children in Pobiedna became much better.
We are happy to know that there are people in
our community, to whom the fate of children and youth is not indifferent.
Your actions confirm the motto that our lives
and ventures are worth little without the conciousness, that we are serving
other people, and that other people can also help us.
Once again I would like to thank all the people
taking part in the project serving children. Their smiles and contentment will
be the highest payment for your kindness.
The Mayor of Leśna
Jan Surowiec
Leśna, 11.08.2012
We also received an official Thank you-Certificate from the chair woman of the village. Below you find the English translation:
OFFICIUM OFFICIO PROVOCATUR
(kindness causes kindness)
Goodness and kindness is needed to help
Greatness of spirit is needed to help selflessly
Courage is needed to not care about the obstacles
Constantly and until the end, give a hand
To the Polish
Holosophic Society
Words of gratitude,
for the selfless help, kindness and generosity.
The Chair woman of Pobiedna village
Anna Hałas
Next thing on the agenda: Presenting thank you certificates to those
villagers, who showed an outstanding commitment for the good cause. Nobody had
expected anything like this and all of the honorees were very happy about this
appreciative commendation from their home village.
Subsidiary
for all small co-workers, this quartet is also being honored. Since for a child
an official commendation is even more special as for an adult, the certificate
will surely receive a special place in the children’s room. But the four kids
do have every reason to be proud of what they have accomplished. There are not
many children around, who are in a position to claim to have contributed to
such a significant extent to the construction of their own playground?
Many times there is well-deserved applause for
all protagonists.
„There’s
not a thing I miss, I could get used to this…“ the scissors rhyme in
disbelieve. Honestly: Would you not love to become the focus of attention like
that just once? The most indispensable utensil of this afternoon, freshly
sharpened, brightly polished and bedded on red velvet, is getting ready for
it’s great entrance and the most significant moment of the celebration.
It’s so
quiet you could hear a pin drop, when our little scissor-girl (hidden behind Mr.
Surowiec) carries the tool across the street to the mayor and the
village-president. All eyes are focused on her – any small stumbling stones
please move out of the way NOW!
They did.
And the sweet little girl performs her responsible task with ease – her mom can
be proud of her. Now it’s up to the three dignitaries who share the central
part of the ceremony, to perform their task in the same confident way as she
did.
The
audience rises from the seats: Nobody wants to miss this historical moment. The
village president, Mrs. Hałas, is the first to carve into the red ribbon, which still obstructs the
juniors the access to their new playground. Now let’s hope that the village’s
scissors grinder knows his craft.
Then Mr. Surowiec, the mayor, follows. The routine he
operates with reveals: It’s probably not his first opening of a public facility
in his carrier. Quickly, the second third of the ribbon is being cut through.
Now it’s up
to our president Darek to fulfill the task – taking into account that this is
his first playground opening, he does a pretty good job. While the children get
ready to take over the playground once and for all. Suspense is rising one more
time and then…
…snap…a
final cut and it’s done! The ribbon has been cut through entirely and finally
gives the playground entrance free for good. It might be just a short moment in
the history of Pobiedna, but a very important one for all the young inhabitants
of the village.
There is no
stopping them anymore – the little rascals are storming their playground so
furiously, they almost run over Darek. Although the kids had already tested the
gear during the past days, it’s still different to be one of the first users
OFFICIALLY, and thus go down in the books of history.
Fun, fun,
fun! Watching the children as they fill the playground with life and pure joy,
warms the hearts of the parents and all other guests. There is a line in front
of each playing gear on the site: The swing, the slide, the seesaw, the spring
animals, the tower and the bridge, the tunnel and the jungle gym, but…
...by far
the longest queue builds up at the cableway. It is not very likely that this
device will get a pause before dark. All the little Tarzans just can’t get
enough of gliding from left to right, back and forth, again and again,
accompanied by loud yelling and screaming. And encouraged by a coffee-drinking and cake-eating crowd, which
also seems to have it’s share of pleasure – whereas, when you come to think of
it, the one or the other would probably like to put the cake aside and take a
ride himself.
But this is
by far not the only highlight of today’s celebration. The program is rich in
variety and has more attractions to offer. For instance the folkloristic choir
of Pobiedna: Dressed in traditional costumes, they entertain the audience with
polish folksongs from their large repertoire and thus contribute to the
cheerful atmosphere. And if you happen to have a sweet tooth (who hasn’t?) the
magnificent buffet of cakes, pies, tortes and cookies offers everything the
heart desires.
Yet another
long queue. What is it, the stranded young fisherman is after, when there is
far and wide no pond or lake in sight? Well, there is no reason for any of our
finny friends to worry about its health. It’s just the internationally
well-known game “lucky dip” that is causing this rush. With skills and a smile
from Lady Fortune, you may ensure yourself of your ration of sweets for the
next couple of weeks.
Another one
of the children’s places in favor is the face painting beauty salon. All it
takes is a few strokes of the brush and a little patience to be transformed
into a tiger, a butterfly, a cat, a beautiful princess or into your favorite
superhero. Apart from that you can catch a breath while taking a little break
from all the excitement and running around.
Warning!
This goes out to all gangsters, thieves, lawbreakers and criminals (even smooth
ones), who are up to no good: You better crawl away into your deepest hole, if
you know what’s good for you, cause Spiderman and Catwoman are in town!
Good
gosh! What the heck is this? ET’s
transparent grand nephew from another dimension or a parallel universe? Or how
else would you interpret this mysterious phenomenon, which is soundlessly
trying to sneak up on us out of nowhere?
On top of
that it is able to reproduce itself real quickly – probably by some form of cell division.
As if that
weren’t enough the strange thing seems to have had an insufficient breakfast.
Why else would it try to engulf two and a half kids at one go for an afternoon
snack?
But now it
went too far! The children cannot tolerate such antisocial behaviors. And after
a brief moment of bewilderment, they pull themselves together, pool their strengths
and start a counter attack.
A fierce struggle flares up that’s on a razor’s edge, but…
… finally
the spooky creature comes off second best. It did not reckon with that much
resolute resistance and decides to slip off to wherever it came from with a
loud puff.
If that
bizarre thing didn’t succeed to spoil our party, why would a short sharp rain
shower do? After all, nobody wants to miss the final attraction of the
festivities: The great balloon contest! The rules are simple: All children,
small and bigger once, take a balloon and attach a card with their name and
address. In such a way equipped, the balloon is being sent off on its trip.
When the balloon eventually goes down, wherever that may be, the person who
finds it can possibly send the card back to Pobiedna with an indication of
where it was found. The owner of the balloon, which accomplishes the longest
journey is the winner and will receive a price.
Looks like
the balloons just can’t wait to get turned loose. Finally the moment has come:
One, two, three, go! And off they are on their long journey to faraway shores.
Bon voyage!
Here we go!
The vast blue Skye is the limit and is calling those who were born to fly.
Quickly the balloons vanish, blown away by capricious winds.
Nobody
knows their aim. It may be Oslo, Rio or Tokyo, Timbuktu or Katmandu,
Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, Bora Bora or Papua New Guinea. Maybe it’s
Winnipeg, Novosibirsk or the Lake Titicaca, the Ivory Coast or the Cape of Good
Hope, nobody knows. Possibly a balloon travels all around
the world, just to go down in the neighboring village of Pobiedna – but it’s
owner wouldn’t appreciate that too much for good reasons.
Soon some
tiny dark spots against the pale clouds are all you can see of them and then,
one by one, they disappear from view completely. But tonight before falling
asleep, the thoughts and dreams of every little child in Pobiedna will travel
with them, whatever mighty mountain or deep blue ocean they might fly above
right then.
„A warm
thank you for the wonderful playground!“ say the words amidst of this object,
surrounded by a few dozen colored paper hearts with the names of a lot of children
of Pobiedna. A lovely, spontaneous gesture of gratitude, from our new little
friends, addressed to the LCP and the whole playground team. And a very nice
surprise at the end of the festivities, which comes totally unexpected and
which alone was almost worth the whole effort.
Every
celebration comes to an end. In the late afternoon, the, so to say, daily
playground routine sets in. But for the children, for a long time to come,
every day on their playground will be a Sunday. The sandman will be wondering,
why the little ones in this small village in the Southwest of Poland will make
his job so easy tonight, for they will have fallen asleep even before he had a
chance to sprinkle a single grain of dust into their tired, but happy
children’s eyes.
We have
come to the end of our blog. We hope that throughout the past two months, we
have succeeded now and then to beam a little bit of the vibe, the feel and the
atmosphere from our construction site to you, into your homes, onto your PCs. In
your minds you conquered mountains of gravel with us, hiked through bleak
sandbox-deserts, dug deep dark tunnels and have replanted at least one football
field of grass from A to B. For this, for your attention and for the many
clicks in many countries, we like to say: thank you so much! It has been a
pleasure and we hope you enjoyed it too. For the last time now, we send
greetings from Pobiedna out to you, wherever you are and, who knows, maybe see
you soon at LCP!
T H E E N D
P.S. Don’t miss this: The link
below leads you to the website of the village of Pobiedna. There you can view
many gorgeous, professional photos of the playground-opening event. Check them
out, they’re great!
