President of Pickens Rotary Club Ken Roper, right, and Jeannie Gilstrap, left, fill out the bank paperwork to wire the funds to Ukraine.
Courtesy photo
Civic club raises over 300,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH).
PICKENS — The Rotary Club of Pickens, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Poltava, Ukraine are supplying an Early Childhood Development Facility in Poltava, Ukraine for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).
According to Pickens Rotarian Jeannie Gilstrap, Poltava is a city of about 300,000 people centrally located in Ukraine. Approximately 3 million refugees — in their own country — have migrated to Poltava following the Russian invasion.
Gilstrap, who spearheaded the project, said the idea came while ballroom dancing, of all things.
“I take ballroom dancing lessons in Greenville and 10 of the 12 instructors there are Ukrainian,” she said. “I was trying to think of ways to help and asked if they had a Rotary club in Ukraine we could maybe partner with to do something.”
They did.
Mykola Shcherban, owner of the dance studio, set up a connection with Natalia Granko, from the Poltava Rotary Club.
This preschool facility will be a benefit to mothers and children. About 200 children per year will benefit from the physical, mental and psychological programs, Gilstrap said.
“Pickens Rotary Club owes much appreciation to Mykola Shcherban, owner of Carolina Ballroom Dance Studio in Greenville, S.C.,” a spokesperson for Pickens Rotary said. “Without his contacts in Poltava — his home town — and his interpretation at ZOOM meetings and emails, this project would not have happened.”
The $16,000 financial donation from Pickens Rotary Club to Poltava Rotary Club is derived from individual members’ donations and from the club’s annual fundraiser, Ride To The Rock.
Adjusting for currency exchange rates, $16,000 US dollars, at the time of the donation, came out to a little more than 335,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) — enough to fully fund the project.
“I am very thankful to Pickens Rotary Club for your decision to provide financial support for my project together with the Rotary Club Poltava,” said Natalia Granko. “I am sure that together we will make a useful project and will be able to help Ukrainian mothers and children get a little distracted and rehabilitate psychologically and physically from the stress associated with the war.”
For more information on Pickens Rotary Club, or to make a donation, visit www.pickensrotary.org.