‘They are not safe’: Ukrainian-Americans collect donations, call for support of Ukraine at Appleton rally

Olga Halaburda Hietpas spent the week buying out military supply stores in Fond du Lac and northeast Wisconsin. On Friday, she put those supplies into a yellow moving truck.

“I bought up all the knee pads in Green Bay,” she said. “I bought up heavy-duty, really good socks. Not all boots are very good, but if you have good socks that could help you go a long way.”

Halaburda Hietpas, a first-generation Ukrainian-American who lives in Appleton, is a board member of Wisconsin Ukrainians, a social media group that is now in the process of becoming a nonprofit organization. On Friday, cars lined up at Appleton’s Houdini Plaza for the group’s rally and donation event as supporters brought sleeping bags, coats and other supplies.

The moving truck will take the supplies to Chicago, Halaburda Hietpas said, where a Ukrainian logistics company will fly them to Poland. From Poland, humanitarian groups will drive them into Ukraine, where “they have partners on the ground that they know and trust, who will disperse (the supplies) to the right people,” she said.

It’s one sign of Wisconsinites’ support for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, which has reportedly targeted civilians using indiscriminate cluster munitions. Milwaukeeans have rallied against the war, and last week, hundreds showed up at the state Capitol to call for support for Ukraine. In Appleton, rally attendees wore Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag and carried signs calling for the end of the incursion.

Halaburda Hietpas said the Wisconsin Ukrainians group, started years ago as a way for expats to connect, has been overwhelmed by the community’s support since the start of this war.

Jonathan Pylypiv was born in Ukraine. He came to the U.S. in 1992, and has lived in northeast Wisconsin for most of his life. He served in the U.S. military for 12 years, deploying to Iraq. Today, he owns a small farm called Bread Basket Farm that sells with a local cooperative.

“Just like Ukraine grows food, that’s what I want to do. I want to feed people,” he said.

But since the invasion of his native country, Pylypiv has been staying up all night monitoring war news. He’s shared videos on the Wisconsin Ukrainians Facebook page, spreading information from his own conversations with friends in Ukraine.

“We speak to our families and friends, they’re talking about doing things like taking tape and taping their windows so the glass doesn’t shatter as much and injure their bodies,” Pylypiv said.

He said the response in Appleton and across the U.S. is heartening, but the realities of the war and what’s ahead remain incredibly difficult to think about. He’s shed tears of anger and rage, but he hopes the supplies collected in Appleton can play a small role in helping those in Ukraine who are staying to fight, or those unable to flee.

“We’ve been able to galvanize the community because people realize the scale and the potential scale of the atrocities happening in Ukraine,” he said. “We’re going to do whatever it takes in our community to help galvanize more support because this isn’t just this week; this is life, and it’s going to keep going if Russia isn’t pushed back.”

Yulia Barstow, of Green Bay, attended the Appleton event with a sign that read “Shelter Our Sky,” a call among pro-Ukraine protesters for military action by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other Western governments. Barstow, who was a teacher in Ukraine before coming to the U.S. 22 years ago, said she and her family used to go back to visit her family members there nearly every year.

Now, she said, “people ask me if (my family) is safe,” Barstow said. “They are alive. But they are not safe.”