Longboat Island Chapel hosts Ukrainian Easter for refugees

The Longboat Island Chapel rents their Friendship Garden to host weddings, memorials and birthday parties. On April 8, it was used to throw an Easter party for Ukrainian refugee children. 

The rental fee was waived, and the charitable outreach committee donated $1,000 to the Danube International Company for supplies. There were cotton candy and popcorn machines. Games were set up on the lawn, and the trees were decorated with eggs just as they would be in Ukraine. 

“As soon as they heard the kids and people speaking in Russian, their eyes lit up,” teacher Katie Jewett said. “All day long, they’re in school and we’re translating through our phones.”

Katerina Anokhova has two daughters, grades pre-K and second, that enrolled in elementary school last month. She saw the party advertised on Facebook and asked the school’s principal if there was anyone who could drive them to Longboat Key. Jewett and her sister drove the family down from Largo. 

The celebration was an American Easter with a Slavic twist. It’s already warm in Florida, but it’s still cold in Ukraine. The tradition of hanging eggs in trees is to speed up the arrival of spring.  Boris Tsatskin played Ukrainian music as the kids formed a conga line and danced through the garden, and each family left with a loaf of bread. 

“It’s like a sweet bread that we bake with raisins and nuts because we fast for 40 days before Easter,” Danube Co-founder Olena Gryniava said. “Easter day, on Sunday, we go to church and we bless the bread. We get blessings from the priest, and then we start from this bread for our Easter dinner.”

About 40 children and 60 caregivers between North Port and St. Petersburg attended the party. Danube is headquartered in Sarasota but helps refugees from all over the country apply for social service benefits and restart their lives. For more information, call 727-644-4839.