Central Kentucky Ukrainian church raises nearly $150K for refugees through bake sale
The Ukrainian Pentecostal Church in Nicholasville raised more than $145,000 for refugees in the war-torn country with a bake sale fundraiser over the weekend.
The event’s lead organizer, Victor Selepina, said the turnout was much greater than expected. He said they didn’t have any expectations heading into the event, but the amount raised was surprising and pleasing.
“It went wonderful,” Selepina said. “We did not expect the kind of turnout for sure. We did not expect the community to respond the way they did, which we’re obviously very, very grateful for. People came out and did the right thing.”
The money will be divided up among 27 different refugee spots in Ukraine, according to Selepina. Some of the spots are churches that members of the Ukrainian Pentecostal Church used to attend before immigrating to the United States.
Selepina said some of the members still have relatives and friends attending churches in Ukraine and receive daily updates with photos and videos about what’s going on in their area.
The money will mostly be used to provide food for people in the refugee spots. It will also be used for medical aid and transportation.
“They need food because people are literally starving to death because those hot spot stores are closed,” Selepina said.
Selepina said 80 to 100 different kinds of pastries were available during the bake sale, all of which were donated by members of the church.
After this weekend’s success, Selepina said the church plans to do more fundraisers down the road while their home country continues to fight against Russia’s military advances. The church announced on its Facebook page that a state-wide peace vigil would be held Thursday at 6 p.m. at the state Capitol.
“We’re thinking of different kinds of ways people can contribute, especially the community,” Selepina said. “We have people coming out every single day.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 11:23 AM.
