By Doug Lee, Rotary Club of Dixon, Illinois, USA
“Pajama Day?”
Since I’d “met” her in mid-October, Oksana had sent me hundreds of e-mails through Facebook Messenger. I’m pretty sure this was the first one that made me laugh out loud.
We’d just enrolled Oksana’s daughter Nastya in first grade at Washington School in Dixon, Illinois, and Nastya’s teacher had excitedly shared the schedule for the week ahead. When Oksana read Friday was Pajama Day, she was beyond perplexed.
In Ukraine, you see, schools don’t celebrate Pajama Day.
Just three weeks prior, on 22 November, Oksana, her husband Oleg, daughter Nastya, and twin three-year-olds Bohdan and Roman landed at O’Hare airport in Chicago. After the few hours it took us to navigate customs and drive to Dixon, they opened the door to their new apartment. It had been graciously donated by Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital and beautifully furnished and decorated by part of the team that formed to save two Ukrainian families from Russia’s brutal invasion.
Although I’m technically the family’s sponsor, there are 16 of us who have made this project possible. We call ourselves “Welcoming Ukrainians to Dixon,” and one of the younger members created a Facebook page under that name so the community can follow our work and offer support. So far, that support – in cash and in-kind donations – totals close to $50,000.
