by Jessica Shourd
When things started to heat up in Ukraine, my daughter, Sloane, asked a lot of questions about war such as: “What is happening to families, homes, schools, and towns in Ukraine?” We told her that Russia started a war in Ukraine; honest dialogue took place in an age-appropriate manner, however we still explained the devastation happening. She did some research and learned that Ukraine is very close to Czechia (Czech Republic), where our graduated foreign exchange student lives. She learned that Ukraine is almost twice the size of Montana and has almost 44 million people, where Montana has about 1 million people. My husband and I noticed her drawing connections about Ukraine that would help her really understand. Our foreign exchange student has stayed in contact since she flew home in June of 2021, and she has been saying she can hear the bomb siren going off in Warsaw, Poland. Our foreign exchange student also communicated that folks are pretty uneasy in that part of Europe. Learning more, hearing real-life concerns and fear from her Czechia “sister,” and drawing connections to her own reality, Sloane decided she must do something. So, she did.
One day Sloane ran into the kitchen and asked permission to use her debit card to send money to Unicef Ukraine. We told her the allowance in her account is hers and she can prioritize where that money goes. She had $15.00 in her account and chose to donate $10.00. As soon as she pressed send, an idea grew inside her heart. Sloane devised a plan to have a local bake sale to raise money specifically for the children of Ukraine. She spoke to three of her friends (Jackie, Natalie, and Michelle) about hosting a bake sale and all of them jumped on board immediately. They had a five-hour planning meeting at my house where they created flyers, posters, decided who would bake what, and agreed on prices.
After many conversations at school and over the phone, the bake sale idea grew. The flyer went out on Facebook and the girls walked Main Street in Stevensville asking all businesses to post their printed flyer, which most did (thank you to our community!). On April 1, 2022 these four 5th grade students held their own bake sale outside of Valley Drug and encouraged more friends to come help with sales. People donated money for the cause, bought most of the baked goods, and communicated how proud they were of these kids for holding a bake sale to raise money for children in Ukraine.
They received cash, check, Venmo, Paypal, Facebook $, and even used a Square credit card reader. Folks from near and far donated through one of these avenues. These four 5th grade girls raised $1,092.50 (one big donation of $1066 and one smaller donation of $26.50) to donate to Unicef Ukraine! When showing how proud I was of the kids’ hard work, my daughter explained, “I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I hadn’t learned about it through goods and services day at school.”
I couldn’t be more proud of my child and the community of folks who have helped raise/teach her, including her school teachers through the years that gave her what she needed to pull this off.