Sunflower F.U.N.D. looking to grow following Ukraine trip

Anacortes resident Michelle Miller has seen firsthand the destruction of combat zones when she contracted as a medical provider in Afghanistan and Iraq, but only from a distance.

“Like in a helicopter going from one (Forward Operating Base) to another, or an airbase,” she said. “... Here (in Ukraine), I’m on the ground and I can reach out my hand and touch exploded or unexploded ordinances just sticking out of the ground.”

As a member of the local Anacortes-based nonprofit the Sunflower F.U.N.D., Miller returned to a combat theater earlier this year with the organization’s founder Marketa Vorel.

From January through March, with a van packed to the brim with an assortment of humanitarian supplies, the two traversed Germany, Poland and then Ukraine to work with the nonprofit’s partners in Ukraine.

The Sunflower F.U.N.D. is a 501C3 nonprofit which aims to turnover 100% of donated funds to organizations and people in Ukraine, including the “Path Home” Women and Children’s Center in Odessa, “Piatykhatki Bam” Evacuation and Humanitarian Relief, the Ukrainian Army Aid Foundation “Vivakot, and the Maidan Monitoring Information Center which documents Russian Federation war crimes during the invasion that began in January of 2022.

“They’re very inspiring. It just makes me want to be a better person and not complain about the little things,” Miller said of the Ukrainian volunteers. “The first thing that popped into my head was ‘These amazing people that truly are the heroes.’”

The nonprofit kicked off in May 10, 2023 after Vorel returned from her first trip to war-stricken Ukraine. As a child born under the Iron Curtain of the former Soviet Union, Vorel felt drawn to help in any way she could.

“(The U.S.) is not perfect, but it has proven over decades that it tends to stand with people who want to live in freedom,” Vorel said. “That has put us in stark contrast with authoritarian aggressors. If we choose to be isolationist, we are stepping away from that role.”

Since the F.U.N.D.’s inception last May, Vorel and her team of volunteers has raised over $130,000 to directly fund their partner organizations and humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

The volunteers have worked tirelessly: restoring drinking water in a village in Khershon, funded the delivery of over 40 tons of first aid, medicine and other humanitarian supplies to people in Khershon villages, and even tourniquets for front-line Ukrainian forces and mental health services for victims of sexual violence.

“When I went the first time, I went on my own and when I returned, the feelings of despair and helplessness didn’t dissipate,” Vorel said. “I saw what was going on in Ukraine and I didn’t really know how I could help. This year, I went back having established the Sunflower F.U.N.D., and I had a purpose, a structure and a plan for how to help.”

While on the ground, the two Sunflower F.U.N.D. members were able to see first-hand the impact of the Anacortes based aid, but also the growing list of needs the Ukrainian populace fosters in the wake of the invasion.

“I wish that everyone could have the privilege that I had to go to Ukraine and see what a huge difference their generosity made,” Vorel said. “Whether that’s the joy on the (Path Home Shelter’s) children’s’ faces when everyone at the shelter gets a new backpack with some school supplies, or art therapy, or when they get a bunch of pizzas and just do art for half a day...

...That’s pure joy translated directly from our donor’s money,” she said.

While Vorel can recount the jubilance and gratefulness on the faces of the Path Home’s sheltered children, other images from the Sunflower F.U.N.D.’s trip to Ukraine will also harbor into her mind, including witnessing the tragedies imposed by Russian mines while accompanying Maidan Monitoring Information Center.

“There’s explosions and screaming in a field. A couple (of people) drag the guys to the side of the road. Two of them die instantly, one gets taken to the hospital. This is about when (Michelle and I) arrive on the scene,” Vorel recalled. “There’s two bodies on the side of the road...

... in a strange way, I’m given all of this access because I’m an American. Because people assume that I’m there to help.”

What she saw during this humanitarian mission left a stark contrast from her previous incursion; while idolizing the Ukrainian resolve in the face of Russian aggression, Vorel saw firsthand the fatigue of 28 months of constant warfare.

“There is no happy ending right now in Ukraine,” Vorel said. “The situation isn’t good. It’s worse than it was last year; more people are being randomly bombed by missles in Kyiv and Odessa and Nikolaev than last year.

“There wasn’t a city that I was in that wasn’t under aerial attack and bombardment while I was there (this year),” she said.

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