The inventory at the back of a modest business in north Dallas contains items that don’t seem to belong in a shop that specializes in Ukrainian clothing.
However, for Olena Jacobs, the proprietor of “Ukie-Style,” several enormous cardboard boxes and the goods contained within them reflect the urgency of what is currently taking place on the ground in Ukraine.
“There’s a box here with bandages,” Jacobs explained to the group. These are blood-clotting bandages, which is incredibly helpful for those who have been wounded,” says the doctor.
As Jacobs, who grew up in the Ukrainian region of Eastern Ukraine, explains, everything in the crates was purchased from army supply stores in the area. She claims that each store offered a significant discount because the boxes were being shipped out to Ukrainian citizens defending themselves against Russian forces on Monday.
According to Jacobs, “we transport it by air, and they take it by plane to Poland, where they load it into trucks, and then drive it to Ukraine.”
She expects humanitarian supplies to arrive in Ukraine in two weeks, according to her calculations.
Even before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian-Americans in North Texas were working around the clock to raise awareness and funds in any way they could.
The Ukrainian Cultural Club of Dallas organized a caravan from Plano to Fort Worth on Friday, complete with automobiles painted in the colors of the Ukrainian national flag: blue and gold.
Jacobs worked until past the store’s closing time of 5 p.m. on Saturday to assist in restocking Ukrainian flags. They were immediately sold out at her garment and embroidery company, so she and a friend measured and cut fabric to sew more flags for the store.
She went on to say that the quickest and most effective option for anyone in North Texas to support Ukraine is to donate directly to respectable charitable organizations.
According to Jacobs, the Ukrainian Cultural Club of Dallas is a 501c-3 non-profit organization with considerable human infrastructure on the ground in Poland and Ukraine to ensure that funds are delivered directly to Ukrainian individuals.
According to Jacobs, “What is occurring right now with Russia doing to Ukraine is solely because Ukraine has chosen a democratic path,” he explained. The dictators of the past (like Putin) have shown to be unstoppable, according to history.
