Shalene Ostrom and her friend Claire Bertoli are amped up and ready to rock this Friday, June 17 at Boston Pizza’s lounge in Williams Lake — eighties and nineties style.
The duo are tapping into some nostalgia for a good cause —Ukrainian orphans fleeing the war— after Ostrom read a news story and it struck a chord.
It was an article documenting the tragic story of a group of children forced to flee an orphanage when war broke out as Russia invaded Ukraine.
One 15-year-old girl was left alone to flee with nine other younger orphans, two were infants.
The 15-year-old’s name was Lera, and the social workers who cared for the orphans had to leave to escape with their own families and so Lera single-handedly had to scrounge rides and find care for the six young children and two infants she was with.
“It just resonated with me. I was very upset and shocked imagining my own niece or my own children, who are around the same age as Lera.”
Ostrom shared the story with her friends and they decided to use this as a way to have a direct impact on children in the war-torn country.
She then made contact with a woman in North Vancouver named Marta Orellana who is ordering things on Amazon with donated funds. The items are delivered to her cousin in Poland and are then covertly delivered to orphanages in western Ukraine.
Marta Orellana is associated with the non profit organization MOCNA fundacja, a non profit whose Facebook page shows videos and reports of providing basic supplies, including toiletries and food to these orphanages where refugees have fled the war zone.
“We all feel very helpless watching what is happening in Ukraine … we felt like this was just something direct, we know the items are getting there right away and specifically things that are needed,” said Ostrom.
Funds raised will provide a range of needed supplies requested by the orphanages, from formula to diapers to feminine hygiene for the teens.
The Friday night event is hopefully a way to achieve two goals, helping raise funds for these needed supplies while also offering a fun event for locals, as Ostrom and her friends thought people need a chance to get out and have fun with pandemic restrictions now relaxed.
Tickets to the event are $20 (plus service fee) and are available via Eventbrite before the event and will also be available at the door the night of.
For more information and to find the link to purchase tickets, go to the Be a Kid, For the Kids event page on Facebook.
There will be a deejay, trivia, bean bag toss, penny slide, merch table, fishing pond, cake walk, silent auction and as much neon and crimped hair as possible.
Dressing up is optional, but Ostrom’s statement about dressing up did sound a bit like a challenge.
“It’s going to be pretty hard to beat my costume.”
Read more: Williams Lake’s Station House Gallery to open Art for Ukraine show
ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com
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