WAYNE, Pa. - A local bartender concocted a way to help Ukrainian refugees after he was inspired by a connection he made with a Ukrainian woman and her young daughter.
A week before Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, Sam Whitaker hired Vika, a Ukrainian woman, to design a web page for a project he was working on.
Days later, Vika and her 5-year-old daughter fled to Italy to stay with relatives as Russian forces pillaged Ukraine.Sam managed to stay in touch with Vika during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The United Nations says nearly 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, the largest exodus of refugees in Europe since World War II."You can see it on TV, you can see it in the news, but actually talking to someone, it's really, really different," Sam said.Sam Whitaker, a Delaware County bartender, is helping to raise money for refugees fleeing Ukraine.