On Saturday 13 December, Convoy4Ukraine felt honoured to be included in a Christmas Celebration at the United Reform Church in central Cambridge. The creativity and vibrancy of the local Ukrainian community was on display, with colourful traditional costumes, crafts, music, dancing, food and drink.

Ukrainian and British guests came together to sing carols and watch the Vertep nativity show. The raffle tickets that we sold will help fund the ambulance and aid that we are taking to Ukraine on our next convoy.

A big thank you to Iryna Haslam from Zirka Ukrainian Art Hub and Inna Sukhoraba for organising such a joyful event, to Sterling Law for sponsorship, and to Cam Home and Garden for donating raffle prizes.

On Sunday 7 December, Convoy4Ukraine took the opportunity to visit the Plast (Ukrainian Scouting organisation) group in Fulbourn, led by local Ukrainian Nataliia.

After some Ukrainian scouting songs, Tom gave a brief talk about our upcoming trip, and we headed outside to show the scouts three of the ambulances we’ll be taking to Kyiv in February. This proved very popular, and included lots of button pressing to test out blue lights.

The scouts were also able to give us advice about what British sweets would be most appreciated by the ambulances’ new drivers, and will be writing cards with messages of encouragement for us to take out with us.

As it was the last scout meeting of the year, we also got to participate in some traditional Ukrainian Christmas crafts and activities, and enjoy some delicious Christmas food. Both children and adults were dressed in vyshyvanky – traditional embroidered Ukrainian shirts – for the celebration.

If you’d like to join in with some more Ukrainian Christmas traditions, make sure you join us for a Ukrainian Christmas Celebration on Saturday 13 December at Downing Place Church, Cambridge.