North Cariboo residents are being encouraged by a local business owner to help out the people of Ukraine.
Organizer Amy Quarry says that country has a special place in her heart.
“When I was quite a bit younger, I spent some time working in Kyiv in Ukraine with street children, and children who were in state run shelters. I really loved my time there, I loved meeting the people there, and I just felt connected there in a way that feels different to me than other things that are happening in the world, although there are so many other things that need our attention. I have a personal connection to it, and I just wanted to do something a little bit more for this situation.”
Quarry says what they are doing is encouraging as many people as they can to donate to organizations that are supporting refugees and the people in conflict in Ukraine.
“The idea that we came up with was for every donation that is made to a Ukrainian aid organization in the next two weeks, people who do that will get an entry into a draw for a prize pack of local gift certificates. A lot of local businesses have stepped up and donated, and the people have also purchased gift certificates to add to the prize pack.”
Quarry says the winners will be announced on March 13th, so they will be taking entries up to the 12th.
“Every donation of 20 dollars is considered an entry, so if you donate more you get more tickets into the draw. Since it’s a local draw your odds are really good, and the prize packs are hundreds of dollars of gift certificates. Each prize pack will probably be over a thousand dollars in gift certificates or more.”
Quarry also has four suggestions on where people can donate to that can be found below.
To enter the draw people must e-mail or text Amy a copy of the receipt for their donation with the name of the organization on it and the amount.
The e-mail address is [email protected], and the text number is 250-983-5675.
SUGGESTED ORGANIZATIONS:
Otchiy Dim (Children’s Aid and Orphan Home Projects)
http://www.o-dim.com/en/
Razom (Human Rights and Emergency response projects)
Voices of Children (psychological support for Ukrainian children who have witnessed war)
World Central Kitchen (supporting refugees)
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