Modesto connects with Ukraine over borscht and Zoom, and raises at least $75,000
About 500 people dined in Modesto on borscht, Ukraine’s national dish, and heard about that country’s struggle with Russia.
The Saturday evening gathering at Modesto Center Plaza raised at least $75,000 for people suffering after the Feb. 24 invasion.
Speakers lauded the Sister Cities International exchange that Modesto has had since 1987 with Khmelnitskiy, Ukraine. The city’s name is pronounced “mel-nit-ski.”
The crowd watched a live Zoom interview from Lviv with Taras Repytskyi, who visited Modesto through the program in 2015.
“Please don’t forget that we are still here and our fight will continue until victory,” Repytskyi said.
He had risen before dawn Ukraine time to discuss his work as a lawyer with the Societies Initiatives Institute, founded in 2013.
The war has killed at least 4,149 civilians as of Wednesday, 198 of them children, the United Nations Human Rights Council said. An additional 4,945 were wounded.
At least 5,500 have died among Ukraine’s military and at least 18,000 were wounded. Russia has at least 15,000 dead and 40,000 wounded.
The invasion also forced nearly 7 million of the 40 million Ukrainians to flee their homes. It has cut the nation’s economic output by a third and slowed the planting of grains important to the world food supply.
Repytskyi was interviewed by John Peltier, a local Sister Cities board member. Peltier did the same on stage with Modesto psychiatrist Nataliya Giagou, who was born in Khmelnitskiy.
Giagou said her father does the same work in Ukraine, amid shortages of psychiatric medications and other effects of the invasion. And it has overwhelmed hospitals in general.
“They just weren’t designed to accommodate so many trauma patients ... the civilians and the military soldiers who sustained injuries,” Giagou said.
Beets and more go into borscht
The dinner organizers said this might have been the first time that many Modesto-area residents had tasted borscht, a soup familiar to Slavic folks. Beets are its main ingredient, grown and donated by Ratto Bros. for the dinner. Several other vegetables went into the kettles, along with beef for the meat eaters.
The volunteer chefs cooked up a total of 60 gallons of beef borscht and 12 gallons of the vegetarian option, said retired immigration attorney Solange Altman, who helped lead the effort.
Guests also could enjoy Ukrainian desserts and vodka, including a cocktail named the Khmelnitskiy Mule.
Modesto pastor and businessman Jeremiah Williams spoke just before the guests began to dine.
“We pray tonight for those who have lost their lives, that are wounded, that are missing, that are afraid and in despair,” he said.
‘It’s inhuman what’s happening’
Patrick Kolasinski, an immigration attorney in Modesto, has made several trips to his native Poland to help people from next-door Ukraine. He described how children escaped after their parents were shot to death on a refugee train as it passed Russian soldiers.
“It’s inhuman what’s happening over there, and it’s not stopping,” Kolasinski said.
The roughly $75,000 raised so far includes dinner tickets, sponsorships and other donations. Supporters can still give money at www.modestosistercities.com.
Sister Cities International launched in 1956 with key support from President Dwight Eisenhower. Modesto connects in this way also with Aguascalientes, Mexico; Vernon, Canada; Vijayawada, India; Kurume, Japan; and Laval, France.
