Our jam day with Merck

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On 7th October, students and teachers from the Step Up Centre teamed up with employees from the Merck company and spent a wonderful day at the Degunino Centre for post-orphanage social adaptation.

We used the day as an opportunity to make advance preparations for the largest New Year fair of the year: The Heart-to-Heart Market. Split into groups, all participants headed towards different workshops which were set up in the post-orphanage centre.

In the spacious kitchen, as part of the MaslomVverh project, we made various kinds of jams and sauces- pumpkin jam, plum and vanilla jam, apple and cranberry chutney, pepper jam (from sweet and spicy peppers) and salted oranges with olive oil and spices. About 300 jars were filled over the course of the day.

At the HandsOn Workshop work was in full swing – we sawed, sanded and painted the wood for our projects. During the day we prepared 100 boxes for the materials and 100 individual parts. You can find our birdhouse assembly kits, as well as the finished painted products themselves, at the New Year market or at our workshop.

All participants could also take part in a scrapbooking and drawing masterclass or play football – many students moved between activities, helping and talking to each other.

The company’s employees spent their day with us out of social responsibility and they did so much – it was our first time preparing for such a large-scale fair, and it was very successful.

Judging not only by the day’s results, but also by how happy our students were, the staff at Degunino and the company’s employees found a common language and a work rhythm. It is so nice that so many employees got involved – even the company’s president, Jurgen Koenig, took part in each workshop.

Huge thanks go to the Degunino Centre for post-orphanage adaptation for providing us with a venue and for their hospitality. We are glad we got to know you all.

Also thank you very much to the Merck company for a wonderful day with a lovely atmosphere. Special thanks to Ekaterina Sarantseva for organising the day, and to the company’s president Jurgen Koenig for his support and interest in our Centre’s activities.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without our wonderful hosts, Alexandra Votina and Artem Sorokin, the coordinator of the HandsOn Workshop. Thank you!

Thanks to Paulina Bikonya for the lovely photos. You can find even more in our album.

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