The story that captured the hearts of locals, and Canadians as a whole, throughout 2022 is the war in Ukraine.
The issue united us, as we eagerly took sides against the Russian tyrant responsible for the death and destruction inflicted on his neighbouring country, forcing residents to flee. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“It was like the world came to an end. Everything just stopped,” said David Cleary, a Creemore native living in Ukraine, when we interviewed him earlier this year.
We then started to follow the stories of people who were helping Ukrainian families make their way to Canada, and specifically this area.
The families are being supported by a network of people who have been working to raise funds, find shelter and resources.
In Creemore, Jim Slattery has been leading the charge to raise funds through a number of campaigns and events in support of five families and four host families.
At the beginning of April he invited his friend Andrew Melnyk, a Ukrainian educator and historian who wrote a book about his family’s experience as refugees after the Second World War.
Slattery said at the time, “People don’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to do.”
He continued to network and help newcomers get what they need, working with host families and other organizations.
By September, Daniela Banducci was teaching weekly ESL classes at Station on the Green, where a weekly Station Café was also serving as a gathering place.
The following month, a Ukrainian night was the theme of the Creemore Coyotes home opener, collecting funds in jars.
Slattery said almost $17,400 has been raised, with $7,200 of that going to the Canada Ukraine Foundation before local families arrived. The rest of the money has all been spent and the families face ongoing living expenses, and transportation costs.
He recently got a $1,000 donation from Canadian Tire in Midland and was able to provide the families Christmas gifts and cash, which was handed out at the final ESL class of 2022.
Ukrainian War Relief fundraising efforts are ongoing. Slattery has been working with Mary Boyd and Lorna May, asking that all local donations go through the St. Luke’s discretionary fund in support of Ukrainian Newcomers.