Category: News stories

Winterkill presentations with Hamilton students for Holodomor Memorial Day

On Friday, on the lead-up to the Nov 25th Holodomor Memorial Day, I had the honor to speak with 16 classes of 8th grade students in the morning and one class of high school students in the afternoon, all from the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. It’s a difficult subject to speak about but students asked perceptive and intelligent questions. Many thanks to HREC Ed for funding these sessions and also for their wonderful resource materials. Thank you, Betty Hicks, Evelin Niemiec, Paola Kontic and Mary Holadyk for coordinating and organizing.

Participating 8th grade students from St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Elementary School
Ms. Cave’s class at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton.

Ottawa Christian schools

 It was an honor to be the guest speaker at a gathering of 7th and 8th grade students from Ottawa Christian schools last Thursday. These senior students from 4 schools had selected my novel Don’t Tell the Nazis as their group read. Before my presentation, the classes did their presentations, giving their responses to the assembly. It was deeply moving for me as I watched from the background. There was poetry, flash action scenes. And one class made their own covers of the book.

Don’t Tell the Nazis is based on the real life experiences of Iryna Korpan’s mother and grandmother, Ukrainians who hid their Jewish friends under the kitchen floor in the hopes of saving them from the Nazi Holocaust-by-bullets. I told the students about the real people and the real circumstances.

The book is chillingly relevant, unfortunately.

Here are the students’ book cover creations.

Visiting Deretchin School, October 20th

I have been corresponding with Cristofer Mattern, librarian-extraordinaire at Deretchin school for several years so when I finally got to present in person, it felt like coming home.

All of the presentations and lunches were in the library, which was a cozy and comfortable place to do them. I got so many heartfelt questions and responses from kids and educators — just wonderful!

Visiting Wilkerson Intermediate

When librarian Monica Wetzig brought me in to her library, one of the very first students I met was a girl who had come in to see me, but also one who Ms Wetzig had selected to eat lunch with me. It turned out the student was ecstatic. She had come into the library to give me a special gift because we shared a heritage — she was also Ukrainian — plus she loves my books. Ms Wetzig had no idea she was Ukrainian, just that she was an avid reader. It was especially sweet that she was selected for that reason! She brought me a Ukrainian flag and socks!

And she drew this flag for me, with a special message on the other side.

A whirlwind of presentations and lunch chats. A fantastic day!

Visiting Clark Intermediate

Jennifer C. Minichiello greeted me with a giant table of books to sign, and as the day progressed, the piles grew taller. I think there were even more than at Mitchell, but I managed to get them all signed over the day!

The cafetorium was big enough to hold half the 5th grade students at a time, so I did two back to back 45 minute presentations in the morning. Kudos to Jennifer who was able to get the students in and out so efficiently.

The middle of the day was a combo of book signings and having lunch with students (one of my favorite things to do!)

In the afternoon, it was time for 6th grade students, again, in two 45 minute sessions, back to back.

Here are the students who came up to the front to ask questions — and they were GREAT!