OLDS — A total of $12,100 was raised for humanitarian relief in Ukraine and Moldova during a sale of calves at the Olds Auction Mart.
The sale, organized by retired Innisfail-area farmer Al Rand, was held a couple of weeks ago, with proceeds going to the Calgary-based Humanitarian Aid Response Team (HART).
During an interview with the Albertan, Rand said the first such auction was held last year, but this year’s edition went much better.
“We just got off to a slow start last year and we sold a few head,” Rand said.
“We brought it in the wrong day. They just sold calves with the rest, but they sent the money directly to HART from here.”
HART president and founder Lloyd Cenaiko said his organization works with churches to help out the poor in Eastern Europe, primarily in Ukraine and Moldova.
Cenaiko said he was inspired to found the organization 28 years ago after visiting Ukraine in 1994 with his parents. His father was born there.
“I went there and we saw our relatives living in abject poverty, which just shocked me,” he said.
“When I came back to Canada, I realized that I won the lottery to be born and raised in Canada. I didn’t earn it, didn’t deserve it.
“So I thought, ‘OK, I have to give back somehow’ and I didn’t know how.”
He left a real estate business he had been partners in down in Arizona and started HART.
“Fast forward a number of years and we’re impacting tens of thousands of people every year through all of our programs, all of our projects,” Cenaiko said.
“We send over 10,000 underprivileged kids to summer camp every summer.
“We have a child sponsor program where people are sponsoring kids from Canada – we always need sponsors – sponsoring these kids in Ukraine to help them out and to help raise them to be the new leaders in Ukraine.
“We have an education fund so when the kids grow up and they leave school, they can apply for an education scholarship, because most of these kids could never afford going to university.
“We have hundreds of kids coming through our program, getting scholarships. Now they’re teachers and doctors and lawyers and now they’re giving back to their community.”
Cenaiko said also through churches, they operate a program to help out seniors there.
Cenaiko was asked if HART raises money for arms for the Ukrainian military.
He said no, they don’t, that the Canada Revenue Agency wouldn’t allow them to do that.
But HART does help the Ukrainian military in other ways.
He said they send teams near the front lines of the Ukraine/Russia war to provide Ukrainian soldiers with food, clothing and water.
“We’ve even helped them establish a little laundromat, so soldiers, when they get a couple of days off, they can go somewhere and wash their clothes,” Cenaiko said.
“They’re power-washing some of the clothes that these guys have. But we have clothes washing machines, dryers, so they can just even keep clean.”
He said they’ve also sent about 30 ambulances from Poland and Germany into Ukraine “which are saving lives every day.”
“We had to buy bullet-proof vests and helmets for them because the Russians are shooting at ambulances as well,” he added.
Cenaiko was very pleased with Rand’s calf-sales idea.
“Al approached us and told us about this incredible idea and I said, ‘you’ve got to be kidding, This is wonderful,’” he said.
“I’m really pleased to be a part of it. We’re blessed to be a part of it; we’re honoured to be a part of it because this is pretty interesting.”
Rand said he was inspired to set up the fundraiser because he too has Ukrainian roots.
“My mother’s people are from Ukraine, my father came from Poland, so I eat perogies and holubtsi (cabbage rolls) all the time,” he said, sparking a laugh from Cenaiko.
He too was thrilled with the amount of money raised.
Rand said people were told they don’t have to sell calves, they could just give cash, and many did so.
He indicated plans are already a-hoof for another fundraising calf auction next year.
“We were better organized and next year, we hope we’ll be better yet,” he said.
Olds Auction Mart Ltd. owner/operator Tyler Rosehill was pleased to be a part of it.
“Great,” he wrote in a text. “Good people donating to a good cause.”
