In Ukrainian eggs, people are finding a way to connect and help
“I know it’s just a legend,” Cheeseman tells me on a recent evening. “I know it’s just a story. But there’s something profound there to me.”
Realizing Easter was approaching, Cheeseman sent an email to the Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Dunn Loring and asked if she could hold a pysanky workshop. She had held the workshop in the past, but this time, she explained, she wanted to use the event to raise money that would go toward aiding Ukrainians.“Each time has felt very important, but this year felt very urgent to me,” she says. “I wanted to do something to help, and that was the only way I knew how to help.
Smalls, who lived in Northern Virginia before recently moving to California, sells the eggs through Etsy and is donating half of her profits to World Central Kitchen, which is providing meals to Ukrainian families.Coreen Weilminster, who teaches pysanky in Maryland, has raised more than $1,500 for World Central Kitchen through an online fundraiser she set up. When she holds classes, she also shares the story of that shackled creature who is waiting for people to stop making the eggs.
The Friday before that, Terpak-Malm invited friends to her home to make pysanky eggs. Then on that Saturday, she helped Cheeseman host the church workshop. Two dozen participants and six volunteers attended the event, which raised more than $2,700, an amount that far exceeded Cheeseman’s expectations. She had asked participants to consider donating $20 each.at the church April 9.