From Ukraine with Love

Maybe our real job in social good is to make it easy for people to do good.

This was my favorite Christmas card this year.

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I’m not sure what the Ukrainian part says. But here’s what got me: “PS My mom brought the chokolates [sic] from Ukraine last week.”

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Now that is a thank you.?

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How did I get Ukrainian chokolates fresh from a Ukrainian?babusya? With a couple of clicks and a Facebook fundraiser. Mila made it easy.?

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Last year my church held a highly successful fundraising dinner for Ukraine. We raised around $15,000. We recruited Mila Demchyk Savage to speak. She is a Ukrainian who’s married to an American. They both spoke, telling stories of collecting things soldiers need and flying them commercial to Ukraine, accompanied by the husband. Socks were top of the list.

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In the fall, I was on the couch, toasty and warm. I was thinking of those Ukrainian men and women who needed socks to fight a war, so I did what Mila made it incredibly easy to do—I started a Facebook fundraiser for the Americans in Ukraine Foundation, which Mila leads. $400 later (with no effort on my part), my fundraiser expired, and I called myself done.

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Then came this lovely note and a box of Ukrainian chokolates (I’m changing my spelling of chocolate going forward in honor of Ukraine). Mila kept me engaged and continued to convince me that “I am a good person. And good people do good things.” So, with that, I ask you to visit my Facebook fundraiser for Ukraine because you’re that kind of person too.