Give me an “A”, give me a “C”, give me an “F”

What does that stand for? That would be the Arts and Crafts Festival.

One of the organizations I am involved with in Moscow is the American Women’s Organization (AWO), which holds an Annual Arts and Crafts Festival where all the proceeds go to support The Moscow Pediatric Hospital, through the Nastenka Foundation. As many of you know, last year I chaired the silent auction for the Festival and this year I am serving as co-chair of the Festival. The Festival hosts more than 80 vendors, many of whom are talented local Moscow artisans and craftsmen. In addition, a silent auction is held throughout the day. There are other components to the Festival and it raises much needed money for the Hospital.

This year during a Festival committee meeting, we were trying to find creative ways to publicize the Festival and introduce the importance of the festival to AWO members. My friend Ann suggested we create an American style pep rally! So that is what we did! One afternoon we made posters and home-made pom-poms.

The pep rally included chants, theme music, pom poms, and cheerleaders! For everyone who knew me in high school, you would be shocked to know that I dressed up as one of the cheerleaders in a skirt that was borrowed from the American Diner in town. I never had a desire to be a cheerleader or the coordination to actually succeed as one. However, the pep rally went off without a hitch. We had lots of fun and managed to garner a lot of excitement and interest in the Festival. Below you can see some photos and a video from the pep rally as proof! My cartwheel was not caught on camera, but I successfully did one.

From Russia with Love,
Heather

P.S. I apologize for my lack of blogging. Michael and I have been doing lots of traveling and the weather is gorgeous in Moscow so I have been taking advantage of being outside without my eyelashes freezing from the cold. I promise to do some blogging on our recent travels to Vilnius, Armenia, and Istanbul.

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