The first Ukrainian Charity Children's Festival took place in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 21. It was timed to mark the end of the academic year at the Ukrainian Studies School "New Wave", which, in cooperation with its founder, the public organization "New Ukrainian Wave", became the organizer of this celebration of Ukrainian culture in this part of New York.

The opening of the festival was a bright event with the raising of the Ukrainian flag to the sounds of the Cossack March. The Ukrainian National Anthem, performed by 150 school students, and the American National Anthem, beautifully sung by Solomiya Lobach, were thrillingly heard.

The hosts of the solemn and concert program, last year's school graduates, sisters Anna and Christina Obertos, invited Father Serhiy Emanuel, pastor of Guardian Angel Church, which provided its territory at 2978 Ocean Parkway for the festival, as well as Father Roman Malyarchuk, pastor of the Ukrainian Catholic Mission Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brooklyn, and Father Vasyl Shak, pastor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Panteleimon, located on P.

After a short prayer, blessing, and greetings from the fathers, the students, with all their polyphony, inspiredly performed their favorite "Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow." This song is now on the lips of our students, wherever they are - they sing it, picking it up one after another, both in lessons and during breaks.

The school principal, head of the New Ukrainian Wave NGO, Myroslava Rozdolska, began her speech by declaring a minute of silence in memory of the fallen Heroes who laid down their lives defending their native land from the Moscow occupier.

The only volunteer team was made up of teachers, parents, and students of the school. By making Ukrainian symbols, the children distributed them among their friends and in public places, and in this way they collected over $5,000, which they added to the general collection, which is constantly active at the school. Military first-aid kits, walkie-talkies, and protective equipment for defenders worth over $35,000 were delivered to the front by courier from the "Novokhvilkivtsi" from Brooklyn. Almost $20,000 was sent to the account of the Armed Forces in the first days of the treacherous attack on Ukraine. Over four tons of medical and humanitarian aid for displaced persons and hospitals in Ukraine were sent by the school community through the companies "Mist", "Dnipro", and "Nova Poshta".

Myroslava Rozdolska