Please Consider Helping Ukrainian Families
Contributed by Aaron Fairchild
Perhaps you have had conversations with friends or family discussing what you can do to help the people of Ukraine. If you have, and you are interested in directly supporting Ukrainians in need, I would like to introduce you to Val Korol. Val is a Construction Project Manager at Green Canopy NODE, and we have worked together at Green Canopy NODE since April of 2016. Val is Ukrainian. His immediate family is in Ukraine, having fled their homes in search of safety, they are grappling with the realities of war as they consider what will become of their lives in a homeland reduced to rubble. Val and his Green Canopy NODE family would like to ask for your support for his family and fellow Ukrainians.
When Val and I began working together I had no idea of the beauty of Ukraine. Recently I was sent this link to 50 beautiful photos of pre-war Ukraine – the photos share a richness of history and culture that leave me with a greater sense of connection to all people. Within the images emerge universal expressions of human creativity: symbols, art, and architecture from the heart and soul of our shared humanity.
Val Korol
Val was born in Vinnitsa, Ukraine in 1972. He came to the USA in 2000 with his wife Yelena and eventually found his way as a Construction Project Manager to Green Canopy NODE. One of the first things you realize about Val is that his heart is even bigger that his sizable 6’4” stature with hands large enough to entirely engulf your own when shaking. In fact, all of Val comes from his heart.
When Val was just 13-years old his sister’s husband told him if he could learn to play five chords on the guitar in a week, he could join their wedding band. They needed a new guitarist. Enthusiastically Val rose to the challenge and in no time, he was not only playing guitar, he was also singing love songs for newly-weds all across Ukraine. The wedding music that began with a conversation with his sister and her husband in their kitchen continued playing until he left for America in 2000, 15-years later. It is no surprise to me that Val came to us with his enormous and loving heart full of joy, music and his defining quality, a desire to help others.
In recognition of Val’s 6-years of dedication working to advance Green Canopy NODE’s mission to help regenerate communities and environments, I would like to humbly ask us all to embrace this mission and donate to help regenerate the Ukrainian community and their environments.
Please consider donating to any one of these organizations. We worked with Val to learn about organizations that are working effectively on the ground.
Today, after their homes have been destroyed, many of Val’s direct family members are refugees and moving within the country searching and hoping for a safe place to restore and begin to renew. Another sister, husband, their two children, and two grandchildren are temporarily staying in an abandoned home in a small township in western Ukraine. They risk every time they go to Western Union in bigger cities to receive financial resource from Val and his family in America. They have lost their homes, jobs and livelihoods to the violence of this war.
Please donate to Val’s family here:
Val’s wedding bandmember sister Larisa and her children, still live in Vinnitsa. Her husband and bandmember, Arcady, passed away last November from COVID. She works in the local district energy facility in 48 hour, round the clock, shifts. Val has been able to maintain communication with her and offer help to her, and others through her. While they are all deeply grateful for assistance for their family, true to form, they are also doing what they can to help others in and around Vinnitsa.
Even here, in the tucked away Pacific Northwest corner, the tragic war in Ukraine creates both ripples of sadness and opportunity for all of us to reflect on the sanctity of democratic self-determination. It helps us think beyond ourselves and perhaps ask how we can help the marginalized and underserved within our local communities and communities in desperate need such as Ukraine. Please consider donating in assistance to Ukrainian families as they struggle to live and live freely.
Feel free to reach out directly to someone you know on the Green Canopy NODE team if you want to learn more about Val and how you can help.