A group of volunteer musicians will take centre stage at Burnaby Village Museum on Saturday, June 24, to perform soothing tunes for a cause.
The concert, to be held from noon to 1 p.m., will be performed by the Band4Ukraine, and will raise support for recent Ukrainian refugees and those struggling in Ukraine.
Patti Kostuk, a musician and a longtime Burnaby resident, told the NOW , “Both of my parents immigrated from Ukraine. They started a family farm in the 1940s in South Burnaby.”
Although her family all spoke Ukrainian, Kostuk noted she couldn’t read or write the language. When her parents died, she had no information on how to contact any of her relatives.
When the war broke out in early 2022, Kostuk said, she was horrified that she couldn’t help, which led her to forge strong friendships with Ukrainian immigrant families that had come to Canada before the war broke out.
In addition to helping these families, she decided to gather a group of musicians (some of whom are Ukrainian immigrants or Canadians with Ukrainian ancestry) and play a concert to raise awareness about the war and garner support for recent immigrants and families struggling in Ukraine.
Small contributions go a long way, their website notes.
Contributions can be made to several organizations that are providing support to Ukrainians, including Canada Ukraine Foundation, Doctors Without Borders and Ukraine Harmony Foundation, a Burnaby-based organization.
You can check out their Facebook page for more details.
