by Vera England –
Longtime Urbanna resident Olena Boyko and her sister Lieda Boyko, a former kindergarten teacher with Middlesex County Public Schools, have been active in support for their native Ukraine in the Florida town where Lieda now lives. The sisters recently raised more than $12,000 at a yard sale at Lieda’s Port Charlotte home after news media interviewed Lieda as vice president of the Ukrainian American Club, which had organized a large demonstration supporting the Ukrainian people. The Boykos had planned the sale prior to the Russian invasion, but when community members discovered that all the proceeds would go to charities associated with war relief, they overwhelmed the women with assistance. Non-Ukrainian strangers brought carloads of additional sales items, as well as large cash donations. One woman brought in more than $6,500 total and came back to help over a period of several weeks. Lieda and Olena are grateful for their kindness, as they have many relatives and friends who have been endangered by the Russian bombardments. Of particular poignancy is the recent escape of Olena and Lieda’s young cousin to Poland with her infant in her arms, which sadly echoes Olena’s own history.
Born in Ukraine
Olena Boyko was born in Ukraine in the western city of Lviv, where current refugee centers are now based. In 1944 her parents, Michael and Irena Boyko, fled their homeland when Soviet troops were closing in on the nearly defeated German front, causing a mass exodus throughout the country. Olena vividly remembers her mother relating how Olena, then 9 months old, was a baby in her mother’s arms as her parents fled on foot across multiple borders to escape the devastation of war. They then spent several years in a displaced persons camp in Germany, where Lieda was born while awaiting sponsorship for their eventual immigration to New Haven, Conn. There, the Boyko family became patriotic American citizens, singing “God Bless America” before each Thanksgiving dinner. (In the 1990s the Sentinel had an article about then Urbanna resident Michael Boyko’s patriotism.)
Home in Urbanna
Olena moved to Urbanna in the 1970s to build a cruising boat with her husband. While professionally a pharmacist, working many years for local Rite Aid stores, her avocation was travel and adventure. She sailed across the Atlantic twice, eventually guiding the first American yacht up the Dnipro River from the Black Sea in 1994. Her travels gave her credentials which enabled her to be a liaison with the newly independent Ukrainian Olympic Committee for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Lieda and her husband Cliff Heiser moved to Urbanna from New Jersey in 1990; Lieda taught kindergarten to Middlesex children for 10 years at Rappahannock Central Elementary School. Lieda and Olena’s parents joined them in Urbanna for a number of years, later moving to a Ukrainian community in Port Charlotte, Fla. Lieda later followed her parents after her retirement. Among the sisters’ Ukrainian community, a common refrain is: “We are so grateful our parents are not alive to experience this.”
Support of Ukraine
The Boyko sisters have always been supportive of their former homeland. Olena was one of the founders of the Hampton Roads based Tidewater Ukrainian Cultural Association, also known as TUCA, which was featured on the front page of the Daily Press newspaper on the first day of the invasion. In 2006, TUCA, then led by Olena, was one of the first local organizations to honor the victims of Holodomor, a period of forced starvation in the Ukrainian wheat growing area known as the breadbasket of Europe. Between 1932 and 1933 Stalin’s forcible removal of food from the villages and selling of grain needed for sustenance starved millions of people, particularly in the east of the country, where they were replaced with Russian speaking settlers.
With their father’s inheritance, the Boyko sisters built a library in his home village 15 miles from Lviv; however, at this time they do not know if it is still standing after Russian bombardments. Olena is very active in her support of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and has been happy to entertain visitors from the Ukrainian Embassy in her Urbanna home. Olena and Lieda have visited Ukraine often, and even taught English in Kherson, which has recently been destroyed by Russian bombs. Visits to Ukraine were always preceded by trips to the thrift store for coats and clothing for their Ukrainian village. Their personal sense of the horror that is unfolding and their remembrance of the past has inspired their continued activism to help their friends in their parents’ homeland however they can.
Humanitarian Aid
The funds that the Boykos have raised have gone to several charities close to their hearts: The Ukrainian Catholic University, whose students are operating a refugee center as well as sending food and medical supplies to the soldiers; the Ukrainian National Women’s League of which Lieda and Olena are members in the U.S.; and Revive Soldiers Ukraine, which has been operating to help wounded soldiers since the invasion of Crimea in 2014. Recently they have been supporting medical supply shipments through the US Ukraine Foundation. Among the multitude of other charities are World Central Kitchen which is feeding hot meals in border cities in Ukraine and Poland to the refugees streaming across, at this time numbering over 3 million. The current greeting among Ukrainians, first used when they fought the Soviets nearly a century ago, is the slogan, “Slava Ukraini,” or “Glory to Ukraine,” which is answered, “Heroyam Slava!,” or “Glory to the Heroes.” The true heroes are the brave and steadfast people of Ukraine.
(Vera England, who came to Middlesex County as a newlywed, baked bread and delivered the fresh loaves to residents when her children were young. She taught at Rappahannock Community College and Middlesex Public Schools, and Christchurch School.)
