World file photo/Loren Benoit Yuliia and her daughter Ari pose for a portrait outside of Jean and Russ Speidel's Wenatchee home. They fled from the war in Ukraine to live in the Wenatchee Valley.
World file photo/Loren Benoit Ari, right, and piano teacher Rebekah Poulson play Johann Sebastian Bach's "Prelude in C Major" together during lessons last year at Poulson's Wenatchee home. Ari and her mother Yuliia fled from the war in Ukraine to come to the Wenatchee Valley with the help of the Wenatchee Ukrainian Refugee Committee.
World file photo/Loren Benoit Yuliia concentrates as she learns numbers with a pair of dice during a one-on-one English lesson with Judy Kelts last year at First United Methodist Church in Wenatchee. Yuliia and her daughter fled from the war in Ukraine to come to the Wenatchee Valley.
Provided photo Wenatchee Ukrainian Refugee Committee members throw a party last year.
World file photo/Loren Benoit Yuliia and her daughter Ari pose for a portrait outside of Jean and Russ Speidel's Wenatchee home. They fled from the war in Ukraine to live in the Wenatchee Valley.
World photo/Loren Benoit
World file photo/Loren Benoit Ari, right, and piano teacher Rebekah Poulson play Johann Sebastian Bach's "Prelude in C Major" together during lessons last year at Poulson's Wenatchee home. Ari and her mother Yuliia fled from the war in Ukraine to come to the Wenatchee Valley with the help of the Wenatchee Ukrainian Refugee Committee.
World photo/Loren Benoit
World file photo/Loren Benoit Yuliia concentrates as she learns numbers with a pair of dice during a one-on-one English lesson with Judy Kelts last year at First United Methodist Church in Wenatchee. Yuliia and her daughter fled from the war in Ukraine to come to the Wenatchee Valley.
WENATCHEE — For nearly a year, dozens of Ukrainian families, whose lives were upended by Russian invaders last February, have trickled into the Wenatchee Valley looking for a new life.
“When they come here to Wenatchee, they’re broken. They’re really broken,” said local liaison Val Nikishin. “And the Wenatchee Valley is this gooey, sticky glue that puts them all back together and gives them another chance.”
Nikishin is part of Friends of Ukraine Refugees, a nonprofit that helps refugees of the war find footing in North Central Washington. The group was formed in March 2022 by a small group of Wenatchee Valley residents, with local attorneys Russ Speidel and Jon Volyn named as co-chairs.
The group quickly registered as a nonprofit and when state grant funding became available in April, Chelan County applied for and received money on behalf of Friends of Ukraine. The money enables Friends of Ukraine to provide housing and living amenities to refugees.
About 8 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded late last February, according to the United Nations. Speidel estimated that Friends of Ukraine has provided aid to 50 families, or 150-200 refugees. Most live in Chelan and Douglas counties, but the group also serves refugees in Soap Lake and Moses Lake.
Friends of Ukraine Refugees is made up of volunteers like Suzi and Kevin Pitts, who’ve repeatedly delivered necessities to refugees in Moses Lake, or Maria Hansen, who’s helped newcomers shop for groceries by using translation apps to bridge a language barrier.
Or Nikishin, whose father is Russian and mother is Ukrainian, and who put his work life on hold to help.
Nikishin discarded his trucking business to focus his time on the Ukrainian refugees, and sold one of his trucks to help make ends meet.
“People need my help more than I need my trucking business,” Nikishin said. “So I figured what goes around comes around, the good and the bad.”
He often guides refugees from Ukraine to the Wenatchee and then, in more ways than one, helps newcomers get on their feet.
He picks them up from the airport. He takes them to the state Department of Social and Health Service where they’re connected with assistance, like financial help or food benefits. When he spoke to The World on Jan. 24, Nikishin had 18 or 19 Ukrainian refugees on his phone plan.
Within about a month, if a number of government documentation steps go well, the refugees can be legally authorized to work. Crunch Pak has been a common employer and many refugees work the same shift, Nikishin said.
Many families have “graduated” off of the group’s support, as Kevin Pitts put it, and support themselves with jobs. As of late January, the group was paying monthly rent and utilities fees for 14 families.
Speidel believes the group’s efforts locally can help bring solace to those who’ve remained in Ukraine. He offered the story of a woman who left Ukraine with her 5-year-old child for Wenatchee. Her husband, an officer in the Ukrainian military, stayed home to fight.
“She's an example, I think of, of how we hope we're making a difference to give her husband reassurance that she and his son are safe and to give her reassurance that we will help stabilize their lives here,” Speidel said.
Pete O’Cain is a graduate of Central Washington University and served in the Marines Corps. He previously covered public safety and led The World's wildfire coverage.
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