Help Golf Help Displaced Ukrainian Students here in the US.....non-political.

[Steve Lapper]

My partner and I had an interesting idea this weekend and want to make this into as big a success as humanly possible.


There are over 1750 Ukrainian students currently enrolled in US colleges and universities. Many, if not most of them, do not have a home to go back to this summer. Here in the NJ-NY area, we've enlisted several well-regarded golf clubs (and believe there are dozens more to follow) whose owners or memberships want to help provide well-paying summer jobs, accompanied by room and board* for these displaced students. The hospitality labor markets up this way are exceedingly tight and every club can use staff for various jobs on the property.


We've begun to contact various Ukrainian student organizations and foreign student societies at a wide variety of colleges and universities. So far, the reactions have been very promising. This isn't a political statement whatsoever, but instead just a genuine effort to lever our resources to help out a worthy group of young people.


If you believe you have any opportunity, in any form, to assist in this endeavor please feel free to DM me or use this thread responsibly. Few sports give back like golf and we want to continue that tradition. Thank you!


* The model we are pursuing is an appeal to the members to either house these students in their homes, or contribute to funding a nearby rental that the club can help secure. We are also suggesting that, if successful and appreciated by the clubs, a club could help raise a general gratuity fund to help these kids when they head back to school.

[Peter Pallotta]

Steve - well done, indeed, to conceive of it and to now be following through. If/when it is thought useful to have a mechanism for donations (i.e. monetary as opposed to in-kind) please let us know, as I'd like to contribute.

For now, and fwiw, just a thought (which I realize you've likely already had):

My previous and long-time professional role was in intergovernmental affairs and international business development; I worked closely with the consular and diplomatic corps from many countries, for many years.

New York will likely be 2nd only to Washington (and perhaps even ahead of it) in terms of the number of foreign missions it's home to. While your concept is valuable and will be much appreciated, I'd say it's not something to be addressed at the Ambassadorial level, but I'm certain that Ukraine will:

a) have a large and well-staffed consular presence in New York, including perhaps a trade-and-investment unit as well as perhaps a socio-cultural-educational liaison unit, b) that will have at least some awareness of and contact with Ukrainian nationals studying in the region, and c) that would not doubt most appreciate your efforts, and might -- even in what are horrific days for them -- have ideas to support/facilitate the process.
I would think that bringing the Consulate General into this can't help but make it a more effective initiative. Again, excuse me if I'm stating the obvious, but I wanted to toss it out there.

Contact info below:
The Head of Mission is Mr. Oleksii Golubov, Consul General (addressed as "Consul General Golubov")Ukrainian Consulate General in New York (note: that it is a consulate general as opposed to a consulate signifies an elevated status)
240 East, 49th Street, New York
Phone: +1 212-371-6965 or 212-371-5690
Email: gc_usn@mfa.gov.ua
Website: ny.mfa.gov.ua
twitter.com/ukrinnewyork

(PS - if you can reach, or have any contacts in, New York State's government, particularly its "international relations" or "intergovernmental" or "protocol" officials, this might be even better, as those officials will very likely already be working with the Consulate...sorry, I used to know/be familiar with the 'org chart' there in NY,  for the intergovernmental arm, but as often happens they have apparently re-organized since the last time I worked with them)

[Steve Lapper]

Peter,


    Awesome idea(s). Note(s) on their way. Thank you so much for taking the time to help. Really appreciate it!


    Just today, a Top 100 club offered to hire at least four kids and start a go fund me for their college tuition funds. I will keep you in the loop.


Cheers,


Steve

[Steve Lapper]

Peter,


    Awesome idea(s). Note(s) on their way. Thank you so much for taking the time to help. Really appreciate it!


    Just today, a Top 100 club offered to hire at least four kids and start a joint Met Area fund for their college tuition funds. I will keep you in the loop.


Cheers,


Steve

[Peter Pallotta]

Really well done, Steve -- and terrific news about reactions so far.


I'd kept adding to my original post, so in case you haven't seen the idea to work through New York State's intergovernmental / international relations agencies or departments, i.e. as a conduit to Ukraine's consular officials (and as I wrote there, my apologies -- I used to know how to get in touch with folks there but they seem to have reorganized)


If NY is anything like the sub-national jurisdiction I worked for, it will be looking for ways to help Ukraine from the 'state level'....they may have disaster relief funding mechanisms, or those for in-kind/ technical assistance contributions...but also I could easily see, with some prodding, a quickly developed MoU between NY and Ukraine, perhaps even with real dollars attached, to support "educational initiatives" like the one you mentioned


(I held the pen once long ago on a similar MoU -- with a global NGO in that case -- that fully funded the university education of 4 deserving and in-need students per year)

[Wayne_Kozun]

Fantastic initiative.  Way to go!