Embassy of Ukraine hosts benefit fashion show in Washington (06/22/03)

Embassy of Ukraine hosts benefit fashion show in Washington

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - As did the Ukrainian communities in Chicago, Detroit, Toronto and New York, capital area Ukrainian Americans joined in the effort to help fight breast cancer in Ukraine with a benefit fashion show and reception at the Ukrainian Embassy June 5.

The immediate focus of attention of the "Because Life is Beautiful" fashion show and reception here was on the creations of three leading Ukrainian women's fashion designers - Anna Babenko, Victoria Gris and Oksana Karavanska - but the ultimate goal was to increase awareness of the unnecessarily high toll breast cancer was taking on Ukrainian women and to help provide them with the technology to detect and fight the disease.

The Washington show also had a local addition with the inclusion of fur coats from Scandia Furs, owned by Washington area furrier Paul Kritsky. As in the other cities, the proceeds of the evening, from tickets and sales, were earmarked for the purchase of mammography machines for Ukraine through the Breast Cancer Awareness Project of the Ukrainian Women's Fund and the Center for Ukrainian Reform Education.

Welcoming and thanking the donors at the Embassy of Ukraine, Ambassador Kostyantyn Gryshchenko expressed his gratitude to the three designers for initiating "this noble and generous charity project" and to the four ladies who were the "energetic soul" of the project at the embassy - Laryssa Courtney, Marta Zielyk and Marika Jurach of the TWG Cultural Fund, the lead sponsor and organizer of the event, and Marta Kolomayets, the project's coordinator.

Ms. Kolomayets, who has spent the last dozen years in Ukraine working as a journalist and developing self-help projects with non-governmental organizations, said this project began at the grass-roots level in Ukraine and was launched with a benefit fashion show there last November, which raised $11,000 - a noteworthy sum for such an event in an economically struggling country.

"It's inspiring to see that people in Ukraine are starting to understand the idea of philanthropy, volunteerism, working for a cause, taking their fate into their own hands and trying to change something by such projects as breast cancer awareness, helping orphans, HIV-AIDS and many other worthy projects," Ms. Kolomayets told the donors.

For various reasons, both cultural and economic, Ukrainian women are needlessly dying from breast cancer at an astonishingly higher rate than women in the West, she said. But things are beginning to change, she added, thanks to the efforts of a number of organizations that are raising public awareness.

Inspired by the response this project has received in the United States and Canada, Ms. Kolomayets said she will return to Ukraine "and tell the women of your good deeds, because you give them hope."

The evening was organized by The Washington Group Cultural Fund and the Ukrainian Embassy, with the cooperation of The Ukraine-U.S. Business Council, the Ukrainian Association of the Washington Metropolitan Area, the Washington branches of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and The Washington Group, an association of Ukrainian American professionals.

Thanking the donors on behalf of the sponsoring organizations at the conclusion of the show, Ms. Courtney, president of the TWG Cultural Fund, said they were very proud to be helping women in Ukraine "and especially to help women to help themselves," while at the same time to present the designs of Ukraine's "pioneers in the fashion world." Ms. Courtney also thanked the models - from the fashion school of Marymount College and a few young Ukrainian American ladies - who donated their work in the show. The event's organizer, Ms. Jurach said that because of space constraints at the Embassy, the number of people attending the fashion show and reception was limited to about 160, which kept some late donors from attending. After a preliminary balancing of donations and expenses, TWG Cultural Fund Treasurer Rosalie Norair said that the breast cancer project should receive in excess of $6,500 from the evening.

The project also will receive a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of designer dresses - and there were a few sold that evening - and other fashions, note cards and other items which were on sale, as well as resulting coat sales by Scandia Furs.

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