Posing at St. Agnes School Thursday, April 7, from left, are former Republic of Georgia resident Bachana Tsiklauri of Saranac Lake, Yuliia Tyshevych of Odesa, Ukraine and Lake Placid, former Kyiv, Ukraine resident Dmitry Feld of Lake Placid, and Almy Bartis of Saranac Lake. (Provided photo — Naj Wikoff)

On Thursday, April 7, St. Agnes Catholic Church and St. Eustace Episcopal Church in Lake Placid held dinners to raise funds to provide food and medical supplies for Ukrainian refugees. On the same day, the Keene Valley Congregational Church, in partnership with the Keene Valley Library, for the second time, assembled refugee packages for Ukrainians and others similarly traumatized elsewhere.

Between St. Agnes and St. Eustace, more than $8,000 was raised with donations still coming in, and KVCC assembled 39 aid packages.

These efforts, mirrored by the hand-painted Ukrainian eggs created at the Cedar Run Bakery & Market in Keene and now being auctioned off by the Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Raquette River Brewing’s donation of proceeds from the sale of its new Belgian Pale Ale, and the Little Farmhouse Flowers in Jay’s sale of tulips are part of a grassroots effort by North Country residents to respond to the brutal war in Ukraine.

People attending and volunteering at the twin church benefits said they were horrified by what they’ve witnessed in the media; a war, thanks to the internet and social media, being seen with a level of detail, intimacy and immediacy not seen before.

“This is scary,” said Karen Angelopoulos at St. Agnes School, where the dinner was held. “I can’t imagine that happening over there, what the Russian soldiers are doing to the civilians. It’s so sad to see the places being bombed, the schools filled with kids, and the maternity hospital. That’s just horrible.”

The Rev. John Yonkovig, pastor of the St. Agnes Catholic Church, poses with Dean and Kimberly Orlic. (Provided photo — Naj Wikoff)

The Rev. John Yonkovig of St. Agnes, who is of Ukrainian descent, described the violence against civilians, especially children, as evil, children so similar in age and appearance as those in the St. Agnes School playground. To him, such killing makes no sense.

“Anna Hoyt of our congregation is in Poland meeting refugees at the border,” said Yonkovig. “Anna says they don’t want to go any farther; they all want to go back as soon as possible. They are fighting for freedom, liberty, homeland and heritage. Everything is on the line.”

“Probably the biggest emotion I have is anger towards (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his followers who say it’s staged and it’s phony,” said Nancy Beattie at St. Eustace. “That produces a guttural reaction in me, more than seeing the deceased bodies on the roadside. It’s terrible and unbelievable that it can happen in this day and age. Maybe it is opening our eyes to what’s happening in so many other places in the world that we haven’t had our eyes open to. I think that’s part of it.”

At the same time, there is a growing loss of innocence and awareness that this war is an effort to destroy a fledgling democracy, and, of consequence, it poses a threat to our democratic values and way of life. This point was articulated earlier in the week by Bono, the lead singer of U2 and the co-founder of ONE and (RED) during his acceptance of the Fulbright Prize for International Understanding in recognition of his efforts to end extreme poverty, tackle global health crises and spur economic development in the poorest parts of the planet.

“Freedom, or you might say liberation, is not just under siege in Ukraine now, is it?” said Bono. “So, when we hear President Zelenskyy speaking, or you hear the humbling heroism of the people of Ukraine, there is a part of me that feels they are more European than me. Is there not a part of you that feels they are more American than you? Why? Because they are living, actually dying for the ideal that is freedom. They are fighting for our freedom, too.”

Parmelee Tolkan accepts a gift by NBT Bank staff for the St. Eustace benefit on Thursday, April 7. (Provided photo — Naj Wikoff)

Bono likens all of us, including himself, to people waking up with their eyes still bleary from a deep sleep as we start to question how long our freedom and our way of life will last. So many people don’t vote, don’t get involved in civic affairs, don’t raise their hand to serve on school boards, planning boards, election volunteers, etc. And now we wonder how Airbnbs took over neighborhoods, how we’re the only developed country in the world that doesn’t provide free or affordable preschool and day care, and how we allowed such a polarized Congress to get established.

Instead of becoming engaged, we hang out in our silos, in our news bunkers, slinging slogans and pointing out what’s wrong. Instead of reaching a compromise and each person giving up some things to make progress possible, we see areas of agreement as a failure, as worse than doing nothing. The consequence, as Ben Franklin said to a questioning woman after the Constitution was passed, “We have a republic — for now.” Meaning that our democratic way of life is strong as long as all of us work to protect and strengthen it every day here in our country and abroad.

On April 7, I split my time shuttling between the two church dinners. At each, I had a chance to chat with people I had not spoken to in a while, some for decades. One of my encounters was quite emotional, with tears shed for people we knew whose lives are being torn asunder in Russia and Ukraine. Those conversations spanned a wealth of feelings and reminded me of the incredible mix of people that used to come together to solve problems, such as the rebuilding of the Mill Pond Dam led by Jack Barry back in the mid-1970s.

“Give a log, give a buck, give a dam” was the slogan Barry used to create a coalition to rebuild the dam, get buy-in by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and, step by step, not just rebuild the dam but revitalize the neighborhood and business surrounding the Mill Pond. The churches could easily dust off that slogan to raise awareness and money to make a difference in the lives of Ukrainian refugees. Next time, it might be to help people in Jay who lost their homes to a flood. Or expand the amount of affordable housing in our communities.

Down in Keene, more than 30 volunteers have assembled 120 disaster relief kits that will be sent to the Church World Service warehouse to distribute them to where they are needed most.

Volunteers pose at the Keene Valley Congregational Church’s event Thursday April 7 to assemble Ukrainian refugee aid packages. (Provided photo — Naj Wikoff)

“It’s so nice that we had so many young people helping us, which also helps them understand what’s going on in the world,” said KVCC’s project leader Barbara Merle-Smith. “As long as we keep getting donations, we will keep making them. A third batch is planned.”

St. Eustace’s Outreach Committee usually hosts an annual Earth Day dinner with the proceeds going toward something outside Lake Placid, typically in a foreign country. This year, they decided to direct the funds to Ukraine through the International Medical Corps and invited St. Agnes to do something similar. Their donations are going to support an orphanage in Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine.

“The community’s response is unbelievable,” said Dmitry Feld of the joint fundraisers. “People are responding more than I ever thought. These efforts mean a lot to the Ukrainian people. I send pictures to my friends in Ukraine, and they love it. They say thank you, and please keep doing it. So we are.”

The Keene Valley Congregational Church will host a benefit dinner for Ukrainians on May 27.

(Naj Wikoff lives in Keene Valley. He has been covering events for the News for more than 15 years.)