On Feb. 22, everyone woke up to the news of Russia invading Ukraine. The 2022 Winter Olympics just ended two days ago, and the world was stunned. The Russian troops had been staging on the Ukrainian border for weeks beforehand, but at last, they struck. The war in Ukraine is still going on to this day. Many around the world are standing in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, including Elizabethtown College associate professor of communications Dr. Katherine Hughes.
The Sunflowers for Ukraine fundraiser is a combined effort by Hughes and Rev. Amy Shorner-Johnson. Together the two hope to help spread awareness with note cards featuring photos taken by students in Hughes’ digital photography class and help the people in Ukraine with the donation money. All proceeds will go to Direct Relief, a humanitarian group dedicated to sending medical supplies to help Ukrainian refugees.
“The digital photography class was assigned to take photos of sunflowers, the national flower of Ukraine,” Hughes said.
It is a typical digital photography assignment but with a twist. The students, including sophomore Kerrigan Surles, set off to take their pictures after receiving the assignment.
“It was just a really cool project because it made me really think of ideas of what to do [to] represent some of my heritage,” Surles said.
Surles’ grandfather’s generation were from Ukraine before moving to the United States. Surles took a picture of their grandfather with the sunflowers, alongside another picture of sunflowers on a deck chair. It’s that picture of the sunflowers on a deck chair that would go on to feature in the Sunflowers for Ukraine fundraiser.
The students’ finished photos were to be printed on notecards and sold as part of the fundraiser. Students enrolled in the digital photography class were given the option to choose a charity and joined together to vote on one specifically. The charity they chose was Direct Relief.
“All of the proceeds from this will be sent to the non-profit, and hopefully, trying to help the people in Ukraine,” Hughes explained.
Direct Relief is a nongovernmental organization that specializes in humanitarian relief. They especially deal in medical supplies and also work to provide food, shelter and clothing to people in need regardless of politics, religion or ability to pay. Direct Relief’s mission is to provide humanitarian aid. So far, they are active in all 50 U.S. states and 80 countries worldwide.
The Sunflowers for Ukraine fundraiser originally sold notecards on campus in the BSC April 12 and 13, but since then has moved online. Notecards will be sold in packs of 5 for $10 on the week of April 25. Anyone interested in buying them can find them online via the Chaplin’s
Office website at https://www.etown.edu/offices/chaplain/index.aspx.
This fundraiser comes as a spiritual successor to a vigil created by Shorner-Johnson. During the start of the war in Ukraine, Shorner-Johnson and her team created the vigil as a way to honor the student’s families on either side of the war whose lives have been lost. The vigil depicts four sunflowers made of tissue paper. It is located on the second floor of the BSC between the computer lab and the hallway that leads to the advisory offices.
“It’s kind of a follow-up from our vigil. So, Dr. Hughes reached out with this idea. We obviously kept the sunflowers upstairs at the vigil area. This is kind of a continuation knowing, unfortunately, that the war is going to be ongoing,” Shorner-Johnson said.
The war in Ukraine has been scary for all of us, but together the Etown Chaplin’s Office and the Department of Art and Design hope to provide support where they can.
