Nearly $4K Raised In Concord For Ukrainian Relief Efforts

CONCORD, NH — Like an inspirational painting, the motivation to help others can come from many different parts of a person’s life.

Sometimes, it is revealed to the creative mind; other times, the stars just align.

The Woman’s Club of Concord on Sunday raised around $4,000 to assist with Ukrainian relief efforts. The event was an intimate affair, Linda Graham, one of the organizers and a former president of the club, said, with about two dozen members and their guests participating at the historic Chamberlin House on Pleasant Street.

The idea though came to her by chance.

While traveling recently, she was staying at a bed and breakfast in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the host was involved in eastern European affairs personally — her father was Russian and mother was Ukrainian. The two cultures, Graham said, for the woman’s family, were perfectly fine until Russia invaded the Ukraine last month. They worked, actually, together, forever, and knew each other well, she said. But now, she said, the host was distraught with worry, sharing stories with her guests about her family.

Graham enjoyed the experience and then, was struck by another connection to the Ukraine: The company she buys paints from, Vasari, in New York City, was hosting a fundraiser of food, borscht, and fun to assist with Ukrainian relief.

Graham thought, I can make borscht, maybe I should put together a fundraiser, too. She approached other members of the club and the event was quickly put together.

“I thought, ‘How can I be effective?’ … and things just easily fell into place,” she said.

The next thing you know, those attendees raised $3,270 for Razom For Ukraine, a relief effort that has been active since the annexation of Crimea.

While there is death and destruction all over the world, with the United States, and many other nations, involved in all kinds of different conflicts, the invasion of Ukraine has tugged at the heartstrings of many. It could be called the first truly 21st Century invasion — with livestreaming on social media sites, displayed on our cellphones, in real time, and much more vividly than Peter Arnett on CNN reporting from Baghdad, Iraq, as American forces were bombing the country three decades before. Graham agreed and was clearly crushed by what she was seeing.

“Watching the horrible news … it looked a lot like World War II,” she said. “The Ukrainians didn’t seem to be doing anything and then, all of a sudden, they were attacked — and a lot of innocents were being slaughtered.”

Others, too, responded and, combined with online donations, Graham thinks about $4,000 was raised for Razom while other organizations, too, from people who could not attend, probably received funds due to the effort.

“I thought it was awesome,” she said. “People can feel pretty pleased that we could put it together and make that happen.”

When asked what might be next, Graham said probably more money for Ukraine while rooting for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hold off the Russians.

“We are hoping that he pulls through,” she said.

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