Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
“Outstanding!”
That was the word used to describe the “1000 Flights Out” fundraiser for Ukraine at Venables Theatre on Feb. 23.
Attendee and supporter Jim Wyse used the word to depict the performance of the entire show that featured a Ukrainian dance troupe.
Dale Dodge, a volunteer with the Ukraine Nightingale Project, said the show was great.
“Very impressive multi-media, dancing, singing, bio of the families, video of the beautiful country of Ukraine, and a very moving national anthem at the end.”
Dodge said it was a packed house of more than 400 people, who made sure all of the Ukrainian baking was sold out.
Project co-chair Jennifer Martison noted the same fundraiser in Penticton sold 85 per cent of the seats and resulted in a standing ovation for the dance troupe.
“The crowd was enthralled by the performance of these amazing young dancers.”
She noted these youth were incredibly engaged and invested in the cause to provide 1000 flights to Ukraine families trying to escape the war-torn country and relocate to Canada.
Enter the Nightingale Project – an organization helping these displaced families find homes.
One such family, Yuliia Andreichenko and her four children, have relocated to Oliver after a trying ordeal which she detailed in a journal.
After the family abandoned their bullet-ridden home, they spent six weeks in a bomb shelter in Chernihiv, where her husband and other soldiers supplied the 100 people with water and food.
After leaving the shelter on April 14, Yuliia’s brother drove the family to Lviv. Two days later they boarded a train to Warsaw, where they registered for their free flight to Madrid, Spain. The family slept on cots during the layover.
They subsequently took a train to Barcelona and spent the night in a hotel. “The children swam in the sea,” Yuliia said.
Another train ride took them to Paris, France on May 19.
“All the days that we were in Paris we lived with the Red Cross and slept on cots.”
A subsequent bus ride took them to La Tremblade where they settled in a camp for more than a month.
Yuliia recalls spending a night on mattresses before two more train rides took them to another village in France where they stayed with a couple until they left for Canada in November. Nightingale volunteers met the Andreichenko family at the Kelowna airport and took them to their home in Oliver.
