Hej
My name is Carolina, and I am from Germany, but I have been living in Denmark or more specifically Egå since the 6th of August 2024. I came to Danmark to volunteer at Egå Ungdoms-Højskole. It is a Højskole for young people between the ages of 16 and 19. A Højskole is a really Danish concept. The idea was that, if Denmark becomes a democracy, then the people need to be educated. From there it developed to what it is today. Today Højskole allows you to find out who you are as a person, nourish your talents or just take a break from the daily school stress such as exams. In my time at EUH I have been surrounded by so much talent and creativity.
Inspiration
In October 2024 I had the opportunity to help organize a Catwalk at Kirkens Korshær, a second-hand shop raising money for people with fewer opportunity, whom we had a cooperation with. The idea was to show people the variety and beauty of second-hand clothing and that you don’t need to buy new things to be dressed well.
A little later in the year we had an art exhibition from one of our art classes and I was astonished by the talent that the students had.
In the second semester I had the great opportunity to make music with some students who are amazingly talented.
Slowly but surely an idea was growing in me and then when I heard that we are going to have an upcycling class, my Solidarity Project was born:
This is EUH
… I knew I wanted to make a Solidarity Project that would give us the opportunity to show all the talent in our school while having a positive impact on ourselves and on the planet. So, I thought about all the things that our school has to offer:
Of course, I thought about doing a Catwalk with upcycled clothes from our design class and about all the art that could be displayed. In our school we do a lot of different arts like ceramics, woodcarving, linoleum print, analog photo, and painting.
We also have a wide Permaculture Garden. At first my idea was to make it a Charity Event for the Permaculture Garden but due to the weather and remodelling processes in the garden, that was not possible.
In addition to this I thought that it would be great to have some live music.
Over the next weeks we were all busy with the production of our musical but afterwards I reached out to students who might be interested and started to create the poster that can be seen a little bit above.
The day of the interview
The day of the event it was raining. So I needed to switch up my plan. At 15:30 I started setting up in our drama-room. I created a catwalk and one of my colleagues helped me set the lights.
After this I set up the art exhibition.
While I was getting this ready, one of the music students set up the Skyroom, where the music part was going to happen.
At 16:00 I gathered with my models, and we discussed what way to walk, where to pose and the order of walking.
The Art
The Catwalk
At 16:30 the catwalk started, and I took my position to photograph the models on the runway. One by one they walked with various outfits, that they had upcycled, with a nice audience cheering them on.
The Music
After the Catwalk we moved over to the Skyroom, where two of the students, Willads and Laurits, played some songs for us:
My Learnings
The preparations for this event alongside with all the other things going on in my project were stressful but I learned to be flexible and not get frustrated too fast. In the beginning it looked like as if it wasn’t going to work out but, in the end, we had a lovely afternoon and that showed me the importance of patience. I was also able to work on my flexibility since it was raining on the day. All in all, it showed me that with teamwork, creativity and talent you can bring people together and have a nice time.
ESC Solidarity Projects 