Talk On Ukraine October 30 In Community Room
 | Author:
Patrick Plantenberg
Townsend Tree Board Chair, Townsend Rotary Club |
Talk on Ukraine, October 30 in Community Room
Patrick Plantenberg
Please plan on attending a talk about Ukraine by Marketa Vorel “A Journey Through a War Zone” on October 30 at 6 pm in the Community Room in the Community Library building. Marketa was born and raised in Czechoslovakia as a third-generation dissident against Russian oppression.
At age 14, Marketa escaped the communist regime with her family, spent nine months in a refugee camp and eventually received asylum in the US. She learned to speak English and got her law degree from the University of Washington. As a law student, she volunteered for the Swiss Banks Litigation project, where she translated and analyzed hundreds of firsthand, native-language accounts of Holocaust survivors. Peering into the horror from 60 years ago, she comforted herself by thinking it could never happen again.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Marketa’s childhood nightmares of Russian tanks rolling through the streets of a peaceful country came to life. When history came knocking again during her lifetime, sitting on the sidelines was not an option.
Marketa traveled to Ukraine in early 2023, spending two months working inside the Ukraine volunteer network. When she returned to the US, she founded the Sunflower F.U.N.D. and started supporting Ukrainian volunteer organizations. She returned to Ukraine in early 2024 to assess the needs of the funds’ Ukrainian partners, to “follow the money” and to deliver additional support. Since its founding last May, the fund has raised over $200,000, mainly from grassroots efforts in Marketa’s local community.
While Ukraine does not dominate the headlines, the need for assistance has never been greater. In its third year, the war has taken an immense toll on the Ukrainian people. The death toll of civilians and soldiers keeps rising, 1/3 of Ukraine’s power grid is destroyed and they face a brutal winter ahead. Ukrainians are heroes not by choice but by necessity. They have the spirit and bravery to win the war, but they need more help.
Please come and hear what Marketa has seen and done. The talk is sponsored by John Ingalls and Patrick Plantenberg.
