RocMaidan fundraiser aims at buying evacuation vehicle for wounded in Ukraine

WEBSTER, N.Y. — As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, volunteers with RocMaidan gathered Saturday at the Ukrainian Culture Center in Webster. The organization hosted a fundraising event aimed at raising money to buy an evacuation vehicle for the wounded.

It involved a lot of fun and family-friendly games, but all for a cause: RocMaidan volunteers said $12,000 is needed to have enough money to buy the vehicle.

Elena Dilai said the organization is committed to making sure people don’t forget about Ukraine and aren’t going to stop doing everything they can to help those fighting in the war.

RocMaidan has been around since 2014. Volunteers here have donated money and sent emergency vehicles from the United States to Ukraine since the war started. They’ve been helping so long that they figured out a cheaper and faster way to get vehicles to the country: Instead of shipping them out of the United States to Ukraine, RocMaidan will purchase this evacuation vehicle in Europe and have it sent directly into Ukraine.

It’s a mission that Dilai says she hopes more people will get behind.

“The fundraising efforts are strong, but the donations are not coming in as fast as they did two years ago, so we really are trying to do all we can to entice people to remember somehow that Ukraine still needs help, and participate in all these fundraisers,” she said.