For Penticton's Brian Lipsack, Saturday's rally in support of Ukraine hit a little closer to home than for most.
Lipsack was one of approximately four dozen people to join forces Saturday afternoon at the southwest corner of the Main Street and Warren Avenue intersection to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine as it comes under continuing assault by Russian forces. And he was more than willing to discuss his connection with the besieged country.
"I'm supporting Ukraine and my wife's family, who are from Ukraine," he said. "All of her family are over there right now.
"So far, they're safe. Her mom is in a little town called Lubny, which is just outside Kyiv. She has other family and friends too, who've fled to Poland and western Ukraine. They're refugees.
"It's a war crime what (Russian president Vladimir) Putin's doing, and we're here to support Ukraine in these dire times."
For Jaimie Miller-Haywood and Sherry Mitchell, Saturday was the culmination of a week-long whirlwind. The two were complete strangers until they met on social media two Fridays ago as Miller-Haywood searched for a Penticton-area Ukraine gathering.
Ultimately they chatted and decided they'd organize their own "last minute" rally for the following day, Feb. 27th, then another, better planned rally for last Saturday. And they spent the week in between fielding calls from all levels of media.
And one of them even made some fundraising lapel pins. But more on that in a moment.
"This is amazing," said Miller-Haywood Saturday in the midst of her fellow demonstrators and the non-stop din of honking car horns. "We had maybe 12 people last week but this blows my expectations right of out of the water. I wish we didn't have to gather for this reason but to see the community support has been absolutely phenomenal."
But she's an even bigger fan of Canada's deputy prime minister.
"Very few of us apart from those who are refugees have had to live through a war," she said. "And I don't envy our leaders now. But I do think Chrystia Freeland is a bad-ass. The role she's played is absolutely phenomenal."
At the other end of the crowd Saturday was fellow organizer Mitchell, who still has distant family members in Ukraine and took some time between rallies to create those lapel pins we mentioned earlier.
"So I came up with the idea of making these little pins," she said. "I thought I would wear them and sell them by donation. And it's going really well. I made 70 and have probably 25 or so left.
"I'm just going to keep making them and then all the money is going to a charity -- the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. That’s the one the Ukrainian community is using in Kelowna, so it's good enough for me."
Mitchell added that she was "humbled" by the turnout and hoped for even more in the coming weeks as the noon Saturday rallies continue and her pins -- hopefully-- continue to sell like crazy.
But Brian Lipsack probably summed up best what most of the demonstrators were feeling Saturday when he said, "It really makes me feel good seeing the support from all over the world.
"Ukrainian people are good people. They're not violent. They just want to live their lives without the fear of being bombed and invaded and killed in their home."
