August 22, Lepel /Own correspondent/ Going outdoors with friends is usually fun. But what if these friends number around six hundred people and instead of a few sleeping bags, there's an entire tent city? For the 21st time, the organizers of the annual International Youth Camp "Be-la-Rus" – the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, the Latvian Youth Union for Progress, and the Russian Union of Youth – are helping us discover how much this fun multiplies.
August 22, Lepel /Own correspondent/ Going outdoors with friends is usually fun. But what if these friends number around six hundred people and instead of a few sleeping bags, there's an entire tent city? For the 21st time, the organizers of the annual International Youth Camp "Be-la-Rus" – the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, the Latvian Youth Union for Progress, and the Russian Union of Youth – are helping us discover how much this fun multiplies. The event takes place on the border of three countries – in the Verkhnedvinsk district, near the Mound of Friendship.
It's not just memories of the past that unite the youth: every year the international camp has a new theme. This time, it's cinema. And they couldn't limit themselves to just watching films at their camp: participants took on the roles of film characters, wore t-shirts with film frames…
Among the thirty members of the Vitebsk team were Olga Mikheenko and Dina Ignatovich, teachers from the Lepel State Agrarian-Technical College. Here's their firsthand account of how it was.
Here, you can prove yourself anywhere, and you don't have to be a professional to do so. The Vitebsk team, for example, demonstrated their excellent physical fitness: they played volleyball, competed in arm wrestling, completed an obstacle course, and took prize-winning places.
The central event was a rally at the Mound of Friendship, with the laying of wreaths and garlands at the monument to the partisan heroes. Veterans of the Great Patriotic War walked through a living corridor of flowers, created by the camp participants along the alley. By the way, three alleys lead from the Mound: birches grow towards Belarus, maples towards Russia, and lindens towards Latvia. And at the top of the Mound, an oak tree grows as a symbol of the unity of the three countries.
Symbols of cinema – the camp's main theme – were everywhere: fences made of video tape, signs from famous films.
Even the winners were awarded "Oscar statuettes." We also received our prizes – a medal for first place on the obstacle course.