Helping amid heartbreak

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This article was published 06/03/2022 (1322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ihor Shved’s friends and family in Ukraine are rushing back and forth from the border to Poland to transport food, medicine and refugees. He tries to keep in contact with them, but as they struggle to find places to charge their phones or get a signal, he might not hear from them for a time.

Shved, who is a priest at the Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Sts. Vladimir and Olga on McGregor Street, has been working to send money and supplies to Ukraine almost non-stop.

“It’s difficult,” he said. “Every morning, it’s 7 a.m., and I’m already up and in touch with them and with volunteers here who help. And we are trying to organize what we can.”

Shved and others at his congregation have collected about $6,000 from their own funds to send for aid. But actually getting that money in the hands of their friends in Ukraine is difficult, Shved said, and they’re still working out the logistics.

They’re also collecting things like diapers and medical supplies, specifically something that “will help stop bleeding,” he said. Again the logistics are proving difficult, but most likely the goods will ship to Poland, before being transported into Ukraine.

He said the effort to help, while tiring, is necessary for the emotional health of himself and others at the church.

“A lot of people are doing that — helping — because they need to be together. They are gathering because their brother, sister are in danger. They can’t just sit at home and watch to see all the terrible things. You need to support them,” he said.

The church is even selling small batches of pierogies to scrape together funds; although, Shved knows it will not bring in much money. It is just to keep busy, to do everything possible.

Shved said he’s grateful for how the community has rallied to help his people.

Manitobans of both Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian heritage have been striking up fundraisers en masse to send aid to those affected by the Russian invasion.

Goodies Bakeshop has been collecting money to send to Ukraine through the sale of heart-shaped sugar cookies coloured with blue and yellow royal icing. Co-owner Max Plenokosov is from Ukraine, but was not available Saturday to speak.

However, employee Alison McNabb said the shop has been selling out of a daily stock of 1,000 cookies within an hour of opening each day.

“They’re flying off the shelves,” she said. “There’s usually a lineup outside for people asking for the cookies.”

Ivanka Watkins said she’s been entreating “everyone I’ve talked to in the last year” to raise money for Lyana Mytskio, who was director of the Lviv Municipal Arts Centre. Mytskio, who Watkins met while living in Ukraine, has turned the centre, a converted palace into a shelter for displaced people without any external support.

“She’s a superhero,” Watkins said.

It’s been a shock getting videos of friends in bomb shelters making Molotov cocktails or photos of buildings in which she once lived burned and destroyed, Watkins said.

Watkins said she has raised almost $5,000 to this point.

Writers and Rockers Coffee Co. is donating proceeds from a coffee blend they call “Dateline: Kyiv” to a GoFundMe to help Ukrainian journalists continue to report on the violence; and Radiance Gifts, owned by the same couple, is donating 100 per cent of proceeds from handmade bracelets to the Red Cross’s Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal.

“I can’t imagine the heartbreak and the terror of having to flee your home,” said Lisa Tjaden, who crafted the bracelets. She and her husband have already donated the first $1,000 from the sales — though, a portion of that they advanced out of pocket until that target is reached.

In a post for her fundraiser, Meagan Pitura quoted an old Ukrainian legend, in which a horrible serpent is chained to a cliff. Each year the serpent sends out minions to count pysanky, or eggs drawn in with ornate designs, now associated with Easter, and the number must stay high to keep the serpent chained.

Through her home business Prairie Pysanky, Pitura is selling blue and yellow eggs at $20 each to donate to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

“I posted it into a couple buy-sell pages and some handmade pages (on Facebook), and it exploded,” Pitura said.

Within a few days, Pitura had a backlog of about 140 pysanky eggs to make. She expects that after covering her costs, she’ll be able to donate about $1,000.

Orysia Ehrmantraut is the owner of Baba’s House, an ice cream shop and bakery on Bannerman Avenue. She has deep roots in Ukraine, and her shop is dressed in cultural knick-knacks and art from her family’s homeland.

She’s donating proceeds from the sales of many items on her menu, some of which she’s renamed things like “Ukrainian Hero.”

One customer crocheted pins of sunflowers, which have become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance, that Ehrmantraut now sells at her shop to raise funds for humanitarian aid.

“The outpouring has been really, really great,” she said. “I kind of went from the approach that we’re not all in a position to make a sizable donation, but if we all put in a little bit, then we could make a big difference.”

Other businesses and organizations organizing fundraisers include Troyanda Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Four Crowns Restaurant and Bar, RnR Family Restaurant, and home businesses Sweets by Arlene and Nicole’s Knots, among others.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca