LAVALLETTE — Our Shore for Ukraine, a fundraising dinner intended to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in that nation, will be held at St. Pio Parish Hall, 1200 Grand Central Ave., on Saturday, April 23.
The fundraiser, which has sold out, will include food, music, 50/50 raffles and is BYOB. A minimum donation of $50 per person is required. All funds raised will go directly to support Ukrainian refugees to help aid the fight for freedom.
Music will be provided by The Joyful Duo, an act made up of Sasha, who is native-born Ukrainian and Ulick, who is native-born Polish. There will also be dancing done by children along to Ukrainian folk tunes.
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The Lavallette community is working with St. Stephen Ukrainian Catholic Church in Toms River to raise funds. Donations will be consolidated by the United States Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese in Philadelphia and sent directly to Ukraine and the neighboring countries to provide services to war victims, according to the event flier.
Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Paul Kanitra will attend and speak about his recent trip to Poland to assist refugees.
Jack Sauer and his wife, April, got the idea for organizing the event after seeing how many refugees have been displaced.
“I wanted to do something to help, and we found the Ukrainian Church in Toms River,” he said.
He heard that the church, St. Stephen, was donating used clothing overseas and asked if they’d be interested in accepting financial donations. They agreed, and from there Mr. Sauer reached out to St. Pio’s to use their parish hall for the fundraiser.
“The event is completely sold out. Everybody seems really excited about it,” said Jack Sauer, adding that over 15 local restaurants and businesses have shown support by catering food for the event. “So far it’s looking really good.”
According to Mr. Sauer, about $26,000 has been raised by the fundraiser so far.
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