Caledon garden centre owner born in Ukraine doing all she can to help

Anastasiya Bilotserkivska was raised in Kyiv, still has family and friends in Ukraine

By Zachary Roman

Democracy is under attack in Ukraine, and no matter how much Kyiv-born Anastasiya Bilotserkivska does to help, it doesn't feel like enough.

Bilotserkivska is the president of Town Bloom Garden Centre at Highway 9 and Tottenham Road in Caledon. On the Easter long weekend, she held a charity egg hunt for kids, with proceeds going towards those affected by Russia's illegal, unprovoked and ongoing war on Ukraine.

It was the latest in a long and continuing line of fundraising efforts from Bilotserkivska, whose friends started the charity Ukraine Medical Support to provide a constant stream of medical supplies to the country's citizens. 

“At the beginning, I was just asking friends, and we were buying stuff at Costco and shipping (it). My friends ended up opening their own non-profit organization because it's just much easier when you do have (an organization) to buy things wholesale. You also can buy certain medicine that's hospital grade only instead of what's available on the shelves of our pharmacies,” said Bilotserkivska.

Funds raised from the recent egg hunt, however, Bilotserkivska used to directly help an old friend.

“I received messaging back and forth with one of my childhood friends back home, and he's finally got called in for the civil soldiers. He's going to training right now. And he's like, ‘Hey, we need all these supplies, we can't buy it anywhere here. Shortage of everything',” said Bilotserkivska. 

“He's requesting it for his entire battalion. It's simple things like a strap to hold a rifle. Like water purification tablets, camping cookware… backpacks and tactical gloves. Stuff that is not lethal, but we can buy it on Amazon. They can't.”

Bilotserkivska said she's going to continue to help in every way she can, and that the best way to keep up with her and her businesses' efforts is to follow Town Bloom on Instagram @thetownbloomgardencentre or Facebook @thetownbloom.

She said the Easter egg hunt was a success and that the kids who attended did a great job finding the eggs despite the fact there was “like 1,000” of them. Bilotserkivska said the older kids secretly re-hid some of the eggs so the younger kids could keep on having a great time.

Some Ukrainian families even drove in from Toronto and Oakville for the event as they knew it was for a good cause.

Bilotserkivska came to Canada when she was 14, and said she's never lost her language or culture. She tries to visit Ukraine every two or three years — her cousin jokes she always comes in between conflicts.

Bilotserkivska's cousin still lives in Ukraine; so do all of her mom's friends, some of whom are commanders in the Ukrainian military.

Because of this, Bilotserkivska gets first-hand accounts of what's happening in Ukraine.

When Bilotserkivska first heard the news that Russia had invaded Ukraine, she found it incredibly hard to focus on anything, including her business. 

“It's a recovery process. First the panic, the sorrow, grief, then the shock… then you (think) ‘We need something to do'. We can't do much because we are here. Life continues, but we have to continue somehow, we have to continue helping, because that's the only way they're going to win,” said Bilotserkivska.

She said it's important to think of creative ways to fundraise, as after the initial shock and horror, donations in support of Ukraine declined. One example of something Bilotserkivska plans to do is create “Ukraine Planters” with blue and yellow flowers and donate proceeds.

“We can't always just ask for money, you gotta give something back as well,” she said.

Bilotserkivska said helping doesn't feel rewarding because of her deep personal connections to the conflict. She said it feels like a silent obligation and that no matter how much time or money she gives, it doesn't feel like she's even put a dent into fixing things.

“It's just, keep going. Like, okay, we got 100 bulletproof vests, we need 1000 more. It's going to be like that until this is all over,” she said, adding when it is she'll want to go help clean up.

“Let's put it this way: when I have boxes of Amazon arriving on my doorstep, and you know, I have a five-year-old, he's like ‘Mom, are these presents for me?' and I'm like no… it's all tactical gear,” said Bilotserkivska. “...My best friend, they just rescued her cousin, and there's no word from her parents because they were in Mariupol… we haven't heard from her uncle in over a month now. So who knows? Probably didn't survive, you know?”

Bilotserkivska said while life will continue for the rest of the world, every dollar counts and everyone's continued support of Ukraine counts. She explained it's so important for people to realize Russia is waging a war on democracy as they're an external aggressor waging war on a democratic country. 

While Ukraine is a smaller country in size, Bilotserkivska said it's important on a global scale. She said Ukraine exports a large amount of the world's wheat and has a large reserve of cobalt, a mineral that's important in the production of electric cars. She said perhaps these could be reasons why Russia wants Ukraine so badly.

Bilotserkivska speaks Russian as well as Ukrainian, so she's able to understand Russian news. She thinks Russian president Vladmir Putin hopes European and Western nations will get tired of inflation caused by the war and take back sanctions they've placed on Russia.

Bilotserkivska wants the democratic world to be properly educated and say, “No, we can suck it up for a little bit.” She wants people to not allow their politicians to ease sanctions on Russia, and said it's even an opportunity for the democratic world to rethink its reliance on oil and gas.