Community Council sold Zooies cookies on the Quad to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees on Mar. 11. Proceeds were donated to Lifting Hands International (LHI), a nonprofit organization that provides war relief by partnering with local organizations and building infrastructure.

Since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, LHI donated over $275,000 in relief for Ukrainian refugees.

Dillon Ring ’24, who bought a cookie from the booth, said he was enthusiastic to support Ukraine through a school event.

“I believe that what’s happening in Ukraine is atrocious and awful,” Ring said. “If I have the opportunity to support Ukraine [by] buying a cookie, I would like to [do] that.”

Community Council Member Andrew Choe ’22 said the event was organized to emphasize the importance of helping refugees.

“Our goal was to host an event in which the school community could provide tangible support to the relief effort,” Choe said. “Community Council decided that raising funds for organizations that support Ukrainian refugees was an effective way to [do that].”

Additionally, Choe said the event helped familiarize the student body with the conflict.

“Community Council felt it was important to hold an event in support of Ukraine to raise awareness on campus and show that the school community was committed to supporting the humanitarian relief effort,” Choe said. “Although many classes had discussed the current events in Ukraine, we noticed that the school hadn’t taken much community-wide action in relation to the crisis.”

Emily Silkina ’23 said although she recognized the fundraiser as a way of educating the student body on the war, she also appreciated that the fundraiser was treated as a way of supporting Ukrainians rather than a statement on the greater conflict.

“I think that [the fundraiser] is great because regardless of political standpoints, money needs to be raised for Ukrainian refugees since they are people just like us,” Silkina said. “We should support them in any way we can. Just like Russian citizens aren’t at fault for the war, Ukrainian citizens should not be victimized for it. I agree with raising money for purely the refugees but nothing more political than that.”