MOOSE JAW — Len and Bernie Mintenko had another successful "Sunflowers for Ukraine" spring sale, selling 1,750 sunflower seedlings in only a couple of weeks resettling to escape Russia’s war.
“We planted about 1,800 sunflowers, so the ones we didn’t sell we used in our yard and for our family, and we sold 1,750,” Len Mintenko explained. “And then when people came to buy, a lot would give extra donations, and we ended up with $1,010.”
The sunflowers went extra fast this time after Conexus Credit Union bought 200 at once for its Customer Appreciation Day, and then the Wakamow Valley Authority bought another couple hundred. They gave many away during a Wakamow Farmer’s Market, and the rest are 小蓝视频 planted through Wakamow Valley.
Mintenko presented the cheque to Christy Schweiger and Brenda Tuplin on June 7. Schweiger and Tuplin are two members of "," a group that co-ordinates local efforts to help Ukrainians who have ended up in Moose Jaw after 小蓝视频 displaced from their homes by last February’s invasion.
“Brenda is my partner in crime, we actually work really well together,” Schweiger said, “and we’ve been helping newcomers to our community. Brenda has been hosting them, and then we just help them along from there with whatever they need.”
Boryslava Ivashchenko and her son Mark also came to thank the Mintenkos for their fundraising. Ivashchenko is from the Kyiv region and arrived in Regina on a humanitarian flight in December 2022.
“I feel myself lucky since I came here,” Ivashchenko said, “and people here are just amazing, just angels … I was afraid to ask about help in the group at first, but after that I’ve felt support in every moment.
"I didn’t have anything when I came here, and within two days of getting my house, it was filled — with bedding, and furniture, and even they found for me a piano, which I need for my soul. And we are so grateful.”
Schweiger said she has been continually impressed by how the community of Moose Jaw unites behind good causes.
“We’re just a volunteer group on Facebook,” she said. “We don’t have a centre, really, for dropping things off, and we’re not like the bigger centres in Saskatoon and Regina, but the community’s been overwhelming in its support for the families that come here.”
“We’ve actually had a lot of people contacting us since we started selling the sunflowers,” Mintenko noted. “They contact us to say, you know, ‘we have donations for Ukrainian newcomers, what do we do with them, Len?’
“And I’ve just been passing them along to Christy.”
The money raised by the Mintenkos will be used to host a picnic for newcomers in Wakamow Valley, Schweiger said.
“I don’t think everyone has met each other, because they’re so busy working or with their families,” Schweiger said. “And we really think building a community is important, so on a Sunday afternoon sometime, we’re going to host the newcomer Ukrainian families to come and just get together.”
The most pressing need for newcomers is housing, Schweiger said, by far. They are always looking for more host families who can give newcomers a place to stay until they find a permanent place to live.
To see how you can help, join ‘Ukraine help and exchange in Moose Jaw’ on Facebook and participate in the discussion.
