PITTSBURGH — Girls in traditional Ukrainian shirts sold blue beaded necklaces, jamming money into an overflowing cash box. Members of the school orchestra played "The Great Gate of Kiev" with Ukrainian flags attached to their instrument bows. A sign urged students to "Support the Ukraine!" and wear blue and yellow that Friday.
At Ryan Gloyer Middle School in the Seneca Valley School District, a fundraiser planned and executed by four students with Ukrainian ties raised more than $2,000 in two days last week. It was one of many ways that Pittsburghers have been pitching in to support Ukrainians under siege by Russian troops.
"I was thinking about it before we started this, I was like, 'I really want to do something, but there's really nothing I can do,'" said Daniela Tyrpak, an eighth grader from Cranberry. "I didn't really know what to do."
But then Daneila was pulled into a group that school administrators had started to form after they heard that one Ukrainian student was struggling to focus in class, then received an email from the parent of another Ukrainian student, Walter Killey.
"It really made me feel like I was helping because I never really felt like I could do something like this, to help out in such a big situation," said Daniela. "I just want to do the most I can."
Daniela has grandparents and other family members in Russia and Ukraine, as well as close family friends who have been trying — thus far unsuccessfully — to cross the border into Poland.
Seventh grader Alisa Yeremenko, of Seven Fields, was born in Ukraine and grew up there, then came to the United States in October 2020. She was just back in Ukraine in December, visiting her hometown of Mariupol, where the Red Cross warned Sunday of a humanitarian disaster.
In a fundraising video that the four students made that was played for the whole school, Alisa told her fellow students that her family was in great danger.
"It's just really hard for them," she said Friday. "They don't work, it's hard to get food, they can't connect with us, they can't talk with us — it's just bad."
Elsewhere in Pittsburgh, other groups have also been raising money and gathering supplies for the Ukraine. At the Nataliya European Food Market in Greenfield, owner Gregoriy Petrylo explained Friday that a supply drive had actually been put on pause because they had received such an overwhelming amount of donations of items, such as diapers, hand warmers and men's socks, that they are now trying to figure out how to ship them all to Ukraine.
The Brother's Brother Foundation, in conjunction with Eden Hall Foundation, Highmark/AHN, the Pittsburgh Technology Council, Giant Eagle and other donors, is helping to provide supplies for those still in Ukraine, as well as over a million refugees who have fled to neighboring Poland and Romania. The United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh Foundation are also sponsoring a joint program, #PghUnitedforUkraine.
At the Ryan Gloyer Middle School in Jackson, the administration also sent an email home to parents explaining the fundraiser. The four Ukrainian students recruited friends and spent the week before the fundraiser making blue and yellow rainbow loom bracelets to sell in between classes — and sometimes during classes, laughed principal Tony Babusci.
They also put together sunflower pins with supplies that Babusci's wife ordered on Amazon, and a shop teacher at the school made blue and yellow magnets to sell.
The students debated which charity to donate the money to, and they decided on UNICEF.
"It's kind of really difficult everywhere in the country," said Daniela. "The men have to stay and fight; the women are trying to cross the border; and the children — that's what our whole thing is about, is to donate to children, because it's really hard right now, especially for them. They can't understand everything that's going on, they can't fend for themselves, and it's really scary."
With the support of the administration, the students also designed the fundraiser as a team competition between different groups at the school, with the group that contributes the most money winning a pool party as a prize.
The first day of the fundraiser, they sold out of almost everything even before the last lunch period. A school secretary ran to Party City on Thursday night, looking for anything blue or yellow to sell, and came back with 350 blue beaded necklaces, which were selling briskly Friday afternoon.
Based on previous fundraisers, Babusci thought they might raise about $400 over the two days. They raised more than $2,000 on Thursday alone, and they were still counting their overflowing cash box Friday. The donations will be made in memory of the school's namesake, Ryan Gloyer, he said, a Seneca Valley graduate and U.S. Army Green Beret who was killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2016.
"A lot of my friends have reached out to me and said, 'I'm praying for your family,' or 'I'm going to help tomorrow,' or 'I'm going to support you,'" said Annika Kyyashko, an eighth grader from Cranberry who was in Ukraine in October visiting family. "It's really cool to see that, to see the bright side of our school."
