Saturday night at Webster Hall in San Francisco, community members gathered for a taste of Ukrainian culture and to raise support for people in Ukraine still enduring ongoing attacks from Russia.
In the Pacific Heights event hall, San Franciscans heard a singer perform a Ukrainian folk song. They also heard many reminders of the ongoing violence in the country where the song came from.
"Our goal was to gather the Russian, Ukrainian and American community and to let them remember that [this] war hasn’t finished yet," said Christine Ryss of San Francisco who helped organize this event. "
This art, music, and film event fundraised for a nonprofit called You Are The Angel Foundation which is actively involved with relief efforts in Ukraine including work to support a children's hospital in Kyiv. The event also presented the concept for a TV-series called "Warfugees" which is based on stories of Ukrainian refugees.
Ukraine right now is facing the aftermath of recent Russian strikes, which have led to wide scale damage to Ukraine's power grid.
Thousands of miles away from Ukraine, attendees at this event put on their best attire, hoping to raise money and "feel the Ukrainian sprit."
"Ukrainians are dedicated, they are strong, they are warriors, they will never give up and we are doing our best to support them," said Alex Sher, a Los Angeles-based artist who brought his underwater photography to sell for this relief effort.
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Sher grew up in Ukraine and moved to the U.S. in 1995. He presented several art pieces that reflect the lives of people in Ukraine who've lost loved ones in the attacks.
Also at this event was San Carlos resident Yuliya Raquel who was selling accessories handmade by a woman she knows in Ukraine. Raquel is Ukrainian American and moved to the Bay Area in 1991.
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She explained that the woman who makes the accessories actually runs an orphanage where seven young children are housed in Ukraine.
"What we are doing is fundraising for her to be able to buy a minivan so she is actually able to evacuate her children if Russians start bombing her area, which is unfortunately becoming a very big risk right now," Raquel explained.
Raquel, like many other attendees at this event, is worried Americans will become fatigued from a war half a world away and tune it out.
“We live in a country where we wake up we go get our Starbucks our Peets wherever and we don’t have bombs flying over their heads,” Raquel noted.
"Let’s just do something and stop thinking, 'this doesn’t touch me'" she added.
Attendees said they believe events like this one are small ways to share the spirit of Ukrainian culture and to remind us of the human toll of the ongoing attacks.