The coronavirus pandemic, which quickly spread from China to the whole world, forced the Czech government to impose a state of emergency on the whole society in the middle of March. Schools and universities were closed, people were asked to stay at home and only allowed to go shopping, have a short walk, or travel to work and back home.
All activities of the Woodcraft League in the Czech Republic were officially suspended on 19 March. Czech Woodcrafters immediately lost their chance to organize typical Woodcraft circles (tribes) events like weekly gatherings, weekend trips, group games, and others.
Lots of the Czech Woodcrafters started thinking about how to stay active even during the quarantine and in the time when everybody had been asked to keep a social distance.
Some of them started to help those who were in urgent need. There was a profound lack of protective equipment at the beginning of the epidemic. In the photographs below you can see two of our members sewing masks at home, using their own sewing machines. There were many more of them doing that.
The others started helping in various services – either working for the telephone information line, giving information about the epidemic especially to elderly people, or helping in hospitals or social services. For example delivering food to seniors, who were most vulnerable.
Having no chance to see each other for more than one month has inspired our Woodcraft League circle (tribe) of Tančící Lososi – Dancing salmons to organize online weekly gatherings. I have learned from their website that they are using Zoom, which gives them an opportunity to speak to each other, play word games, get inspired by manual creativity and so on. See some handmade products of their creativity in the photos below.
a stamp of fruit made by Mischa from Tančící Lososi
a doll chair made by Marketa from Tančící Lososi
a snap of a bird taken by Marketa from Tančící Lososi
Our chieftains have now launched a new project the name of which is simple: Let´s give a smile to each other.
Our members have been invited to send a photo showing their faces smiling even behind the masks. The obvious aim of the project is to make people cheer up. 🙂
Tomas Sadilek, the WLC chief, giving a smile
Katerina Sadilkova giving a smile
I very much hope that the next news from the Czech Woodcraft League will be from our camps in the Woodcraft style.
Blue Sky!
Logan – Martin Kupka