撸先生

From Feb. 15 to March 15, Vail International Gallery will donate 10% of its net sales from聽Mikhail Turovsky art sales to Limbs for Liberty, a local nonprofit that assists Ukrainians.

The Vail Valley-based nonprofit began in 2022 to bring soldiers to the United States to receive prosthetics in a more timely manner. In addition to providing prosthetics to four soldiers, Limbs for Liberty has sent much-needed supplies to aid Ukrainians, including coats, radios, medical supplies and much more. Recently, it started partnering with Warriors on Cataract Canyon, a Boulder-based nonprofit that takes American veterans rafting; through the collaboration, the two nonprofits brought over eight Ukrainian soldiers with PTSD to join the Americans.

“The Ukrainians are doing a lot better with providing prosthetics, so we switched over and partnered with Warriors on Cataract Canyon,” said Limbs for Liberty co-founder Kelli Rohrig. “What the therapists are saying who go on the trip is that the Ukrainians actually helped the Americans quite a bit because the Ukrainians are (still fighting the war, and the Americans) kind of see themselves reflected in the Ukrainians. So it’s win-win; we bring the Ukrainians over, and they aid the Americans.”

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In 2022, Vail International Gallery gave the local nonprofit $11,000 from Turovsky’s drawings, which the artist donated to the gallery. Now, it will donate 10% of sales of his work.

“We’re doing this because we want to support a local charity that is having an effect in Ukraine,” said gallery co-owner Marc LeVarn. “I think that Kelli has done an amazing job of bootstrapping a local charity. We saw a need, she saw a place she could go and make a difference, and it goes with our mission as a gallery, where we’ve been exhibiting and showing Eastern European and Russian/Soviet art for over 20 years, and we have a significant collector base. We’ve sold a lot of art from that area in the world, and so, for us, as a business, it just makes sense to support a cause that can support this area, because we just love the art that comes from it.”

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Limbs for Liberty uses donations to aid Ukrainians in any way necessary. For instance, it just sent 24 boxes containing 10-14 jackets, including ones donated by SYNC Performance, to Ukrainians living without heat in freezing temperatures, because the quality of jackets civilians can buy is not as warm as in the United States. Plus, donors often place supportive notes in the pockets.

“It just shows the Ukrainians that, ‘Oh my gosh, somebody in America is thinking about me,'” Rohrig said.

She also just sent 20 donated radios to help firefighters and civilians communicate about where Russians are bombing and evacuate. They’ve also sent drones and other supplies, based on needs their Ukrainian correspondents inform them about.

“We do whatever is asked of us,” she said.

With other wars breaking out, news about Ukraine has faded in the United States.

“Ukraine is on the backburner now because there are so many other crises in the world, but in this day and age, I think you have to pick the causes that mean something to you and stick by them,” LeVarn said. “It doesn’t mean there’s any less need, just because it’s not as present (in the news).”

Rohrig points out that Ukrainians are still in the original situation they were when Russia attacked, and it’s important to support the country.

“Ukrainians are on the frontline of Western Europe, and we have no idea what Putin’s endgame is,” she said. “If we let a democracy fall, who’s to say that the next one doesn’t fall, and the next one and the next one. At this point, because it’s kind of out of the front of everyone’s minds, it’s really important that even if people donate like $5 鈥� what I worked out is that each jacket, to go from my house to someone’s front door, is about $10 a jacket 鈥� it allows us to take jackets to a village that has basically been totally flattened 鈥� and it’s really a cold place 鈥� even colder than here. They have nothing 鈥� the Russians took everything they could, and so, these people, even if their house is still close to standing, the Russians took everything.”

She’s currently working on a visa for a 25-year-old Ukrainian who Russians held captive for 2 陆 years. The man, who was in the Coast Guard, dreams of visiting the United States and bringing a poster he made to support his friend, who is still being held captive.

“The Russians want to send him to life in prison, and so he just wants to come here to hang the poster and say, ‘please help my friend,'” she said.