Building New Connections

“Connection is an energy that is created between people when they feel seen, heard and valued. When they can give and receive without judgment.”Dr.Brene Brown”

On September 15, 2018 an annual “2018 Ежегодный Пикник Соотечественников” or 2018 Russian Picnic took place at Fort Collins City Park, and 110+ people attended.

Traditionally, this annual event was organized and hosted by Northern Colorado Russian Group and led by Tahir Minullin. However, for current year picnic Sasha Stewart and Tatiana Wiltse stepped in as organizers. For nearly a decade Annual Russian Picnic was facilitated and hosted by Northern Colorado Russian Group and marketing support was provided by Russians Fort Collins web-site.

To get started, organizers created Facebook event and invited over 150+ people to attend. The community event was promoted on four different social media groups and via personal boards, and as a result 33 people signed up and another 79 expressed interest in attending the picnic.

As the event date approached closer and closer organizers got nervous whether our community would make a showing. To organizers` surprise, the picnic was very well attended and 110+ people showed up to meet, greet and connect with each other. Some people drove from South Denver and Aurora to attend the event. Needless to say we were all super excited to see every single person, who was able to make it that day.

We had a very diverse population of folks attending, anyone from babies of a few months old to a Russian seniors. Picnic was organized as a potluck and all attendees were asked to contribute their favorite dish. To organizers surprise we had 8 full tables of food! It was a feast!

We are so grateful for all food contributions, effort and time people put forward to make this amazing picnic a reality.

It was amazing to see everyone, meet and share our stories.

We are looking forward to our next picnic next spring 2019.