Gov. Jay Inslee meets with Ukrainian refugees at Spokane's Thrive Center

Apr. 5—Gov. Jay Inslee briefly stopped by Spokane Wednesday to visit local Ukrainian refugees living in the Thrive Center and see firsthand a local program that launched with the help of state funds.

As Inslee entered the building Wednesday afternoon, he was presented with a cake and greeted by staff and those living at the center, including a number of very curious children and some young adults — one of whom the governor suggested would one day play basketball for a local college.

The Thrive Center opened last summer in the former Quality Inn, 110 E. Fourth Ave. The center has provided much-needed housing for refugee families and created a community of people all enduring the struggle of adjusting to a new home.

The center is a collaboration between two recently founded local organizations: the Ukraine Relief Coalition and Thrive International.

Inslee's tour was led by Mark Finney, pastor of Emmaus church in Spokane's Perry District, who led World Relief for years until the organization's national office rejected the hiring of a gay man at the Spokane office early this year. He resigned in January 2022.

Finney had a strong desire to continue serving the refugee community in Spokane and founded Thrive International in February that year. The Russian invasion of Ukraine fast-tracked plans to develop programs to help refugees navigate their new home.

Last summer, the Spokane County Commission secured a $1 million grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce to meet the urgent need of Ukrainian refugees. Thrive International was selected to administer those funds.

The governor was led through Thrive's halls, through its kitchen where workers were baking cookies and into a dining hall being prepared for a small banquet for the governor. The food, a steaming spread of Ethiopian wat and injera, was catered by Feast World Kitchen, which has a rotating schedule of chefs representing cuisines from across the globe and provides job training for immigrants and refugees.

Inslee's attention was turned to a mural of a sunflower field blanketing a wall next to the dining room, painted by Yelyzaveta Shchukina, a mural painter from Odessa, Ukraine, staying at Thrive. Inslee noted that he had recently seen sunflowers painted by Vincent Van Gogh and said that Shchukina's were superior.

Inslee also pointed out the bald eagle flying over the field of sunflowers, and assured Shchukina that Ukraine would continue to receive America's support. He noted that he had attended a conference call Tuesday with a number of U.S. governors and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and recently met with a Ukrainian minister.

"And I assured him that I believe the American people are going to remain totally committed to the people of Ukraine," he told her.