Bob Leshchyshen helped organize the Resilient Hearts fundraising event in Toronto for medical services in Ukraine.Photograph by Becca Gilgan/Worker Bee Supply/Courtesy of St. Volodymyr Institute
The organizer: Bob Leshchyshen
The pitch: Raising $150,000 and climbing
The cause: Medical services in Ukraine
Like a lot of Canadians with Ukrainian roots, Bob Leshchyshen knows that the public is growing tired of the war in Ukraine as it enters its fifth year.
“People are getting tired because they don’t understand the ramifications of what may happen if Putin wins,” he said from his home in Toronto.
Mr. Leshchyshen, 75, has been actively involved in the Ukrainian community for much of his life, as a philanthropist, businessman and political activist. He’s been a member of the Buduchnist Credit Union for 60 years and has a background in financial regulation. He’s also served as a director of the credit union and helped launch the BCU Foundation.
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When Russian-backed rebels launched attacks in 2014 in eastern Ukraine, Mr. Leshchyshen began collecting donations to fund non-military equipment for Ukrainian soldiers such as flak jackets and boots. The BCU Foundation, which he co-founded with other Buduchnist Credit Union members in 2006, was also involved and over the years it has raised close to $10-million.
The foundation used to hold an annual fundraising event but it was cancelled in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and remained on hold after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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After four years of war, Mr. Leshchyshen and the foundation felt it was time to hold the fundraising event again. On Feb. 21, the charity hosted Resilient Hearts which featured celebrity chef and activist Yevhen Klopotenko and Irish journalist Caolan Robertson. More than 400 tickets were sold and the event raised $150,000.
The money will support a hospital in Ukraine and to help pay for 90 handheld ultrasound devices which will be used on the front lines to diagnose war wounds. The foundation is also contributing $20,000 to ship five ambulances which have been donated by the City of Toronto.
Mr. Leshchyshen doubts Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate an end to the war. He’s convinced that the fighting will only stop when the Russian people begin to feel the consequences, in terms of lives lost and economic hardship.
“That’s the only way I see it happening, and I think there is some chance of that happening this year,” he said. “Ukrainians are not giving up, they’re going to fight to the end.”