Suncoast students help pay for safe evacuation of Ukrainian orphans

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Students in the Suncoast are working to ease the pain in Ukraine. 300 students at the Community Day School in Sarasota are connected with an orphanage in Ukraine and via Zoom to Rabbi Mendi Wolf at the Congregation housing the orphans in Europe.

For 52 hours, the group ran buses and evacuated the children from Ukraine. 83 children are safe from the war in Berlin, Germany and now they have new friends in Sarasota, Fla.

The children have some understanding of what’s happening and just want to make their new friends feel safe.

“There’s a big ward and kids are scared out of their minds,” explained Miles Merideth, a 5th grader at the school.

The students sent all of their “Tzedakah” or charitable funds with a check for $520. That money will cover the costs of the ten buses that took the orphans from Odessa, Ukraine to Berlin, Germany.

The kids watching history unfold wanted to help out. Chabad of Sarasota and Manatee Counties told the kids they are also helping provide food and shelter to orphans who have lost everything.