WESTLOCK – Residents at the Smithfield Lodge are holding the people of Ukraine close at heart, sending their thoughts and prayers to the war-torn country.
The lodge held a special paint night on Thursday, March 10, where residents put their artistic creativity to use, painting an array of sunflowers to show their support for the people of Ukraine, who are currently suffering in the throes of war.
The paintings by 28 residents are now on display and were completed with many "thoughts and prayers" behind every Sunflower creation.
”Our manager thought that it would be a great night in support of Ukraine,” said Judy Burns, activity coordinator at Smithfield Lodge. “We did it for our thoughts and prayers to be with Ukraine at this given time….whether they could paint or not, (residents) did a beautiful job and you can see that in the work they did.”
Burns noted several residents whose families moved from Ukraine to Canada as a result of past wars, while others still have a family connection there.
“Some residents do remember at the age of 10 just leaving, not knowing why and leaving everything,” she said. “Or there’s residents right now saying we have family there or just because of our heritage, we have ties – that is our homeland. That makes them very, very sad for everybody that’s over there at this given time.”
The national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower, and for several of the residents who participated in the paint night, it was a special way to show how much Canadians care.
“I’m Ukrainian, so it made me proud (to paint a sunflower). They are suffering, nobody should suffer like that,” said Katie Zibrowski, noting she visited friends in Ukraine several years ago.
Theresa Betts and Shirley Balascak joined Zibrowski for the paint night and said it was a wonderful show of support for the people of Ukraine. “I think it’s fabulous,” said Betts. “I really enjoyed painting one of those flowers.
“I think you can tell from how many pictures there are, how many people joined in and I’m sure they all felt that support for Ukraine,” said Balascak. “They didn’t care if they were great painters or not. They came, Judy gave us a hand and it was great.”
In addition to the sunflower paint night, the Lodge will also be holding a ribbon fundraiser in the coming weeks. Residents will make an awareness ribbon in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, with a Canadian flag pin in the middle to show their support for the country and its people. Money raised from the sale of the ribbons, will be collected and sent through a non-profit organization to Ukraine to help with humanitarian needs in the war-torn country.
“All the money is going to go to Ukraine,” said Burns.
