Sarasota woman flew to Ukraine amid war to provide humanitarian aid

A Sarasota woman and dozens of children hid at the Church of the Most Apostles Peter and Paul in Lviv, Ukraine, when an air raid siren screamed out a warning to take shelter.

In a video shared by Adelia Sobrenome, children distracted themselves from the missile threat by playing together and singing a folklore hymn: Oy u luzi chervona kalyna, a song adopted as patriotic during the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Sobrenome was on a three-week long humanitarian trip to Ukraine when she took the video – a trip she booked herself after feeling overwhelmingly sad when Russia invaded its peaceful neighbor and war broke out.

"It just took over my life," she said. "As my therapist says, it doesn't really matter why the feelings happen, you just deal with them."

ICYMI: USF commences its virtual series analyzing the war in Ukraine

From Sarasota to Kyiv:: Pine View grad a war correspondent in the heart of Ukraine

Sobrenome, a Brazilian immigrant, has no ties to Ukraine. No friends or family to fret over. Just an overwhelming sense of duty for Ukrainians bearing the weight of war.

Through Twitter, Discord, and Facebook, Sobrenome followed Ukrainian soldiers, Polish grassroots organizations and other Americans who shared her distress while tracking the brutalities.

Sobrenome posted on a Facebook group with her intent to travel to Ukraine, asking others for any recommendations on which volunteers or organizations she could coordinate with once she landed in Poland.

Bill Kelleher, a financial adviser in Arizona, read Sobrenome's post mere seconds after he published a similar request of his own.

"We both saw each other's (social media posts) and immediately got into contact to decide 'let's meet up in Poland and try to do this as a team, make sure we've got each other's backs,'" Kelleher said.

Within days, the two met face-to-face at the Krakow airport in Poland. Sobrenome had nine duffel bags packed with donated supplies – from baby formula to body armor to bandages – in tow.

Kelleher said he and Sobrenome initially worked with Poland Welcomes, an organization housing Ukrainian refugees about 20 minutes from the Poland-Ukraine border, to flip old dormitories into shelters.

"At the time, they had about 500 Ukrainian women and children that they were housing, and we were building facilities out to where they could get 1,000 to 1,200 women and children," Kelleher told the Herald-Tribune in a phone interview.

Working together to help refugees

Eventually, Sobrenome met Mike Alba, a retired ironworker from New York who was a rescue worker during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He said he searched Twitter for volunteers in Ukraine, finding Sobrenome, who directed him to arrive in Lviv with five more duffel bags of medical supplies.

He said most of their work was transporting supplies to several grassroots organizations or shelters in both Ukraine and Poland. When returning from Ukraine, he and Sobrenome would pick up refugees to shuttle across the border.

"Our first trip was with a Ukrainian group called Where Hope Lives," Alba said. "We bought a washing machine for a hospital in Kharkiv, then Adelia and I did a 36-hour round-trip bringing that and medical supplies to the hospital."

Sobrenome, Alba and Kelleher all described somber scenes: people using subways as bomb shelters, shells of apartment buildings still standing, and normally quiet lands shocked with piercing rings of war sirens.

Related: Sunnyside Village residents raise more than $16,000 for Ukraine relief und

Sobrenome also teamed up with Jeffery Smith, a retired major from the U.S. Army Special Forces, who was voluntarily teaching techniques and tactics to Ukrainian soldiers.

"If we stop the Russians there, maybe my sons or somebody else's sons don't have to go over and fight," Smith said. "Dragging my old (self) over there is no big deal."

Sobrenome and Smith met when she showed up in the middle of the night with a couple of refugees from Mariupol. The pair then spent a couple of days together moving from Ukraine to Poland transporting supplies.

Sobrenome speaks of her experience in Ukraine with a nonchalant attitude, directing the conversation to be about the Ukrainians' everyday survival rather than her concern for personal safety.

"Of course, there is curfew and the checkpoints and the air raid alerts," she said. "All three are really scary. But you get used to it."

Smith said Sobrenome is an amazing person who may not realize how dangerous her work is.

"One of the most dangerous things you can do is go through checkpoints in the middle of the night," Smith said. "Any of these people at these checkpoints could be dozing off, wake up to see a car coming up, and a guy jerks up to pull the trigger. Next thing you know, you're dead. No one's gonna hold that accountable."

"The woman deserves some kind of medal."

Alba similarly called Sobrenome "absolutely fearless," for her cool, contained attitude the entirety of their stay.

"We were walking in this huge, beautiful park in the middle of Kharkiv," Alba said. "And then artillery shells fired off. I don't think fear ever crossed her face."

Personal toll and next steps

Sobrenome said she plans to return to Ukraine by the end of June with more supplies: night vision equipment, prescription medication, chest compression bandages, and whatever else is needed.

She's fundraising for direct relief via GoFundMe.

"I spend my days researching what's the best rifle-resistant helmet, body armor, ballistic everything," she said in a text message to the Herald-Tribune. "My hobbies are dancing and traveling, and now I feel guilty having fun."

When Alba reflects on his time in eastern Europe, he chokes up. His voice gets tight, and there are long pauses between his words.

"It's just unbelievable," he said. "I'm still processing. You realize that (Americans) do take our day-to-day lives – without the fear of shelling – for granted."

Stefania Lugli covers a little of everything for the Herald-Tribune while pursuing watchdog/investigative stories. You can contact her at slugli@heraldtribune.com or dm her on Twitter at @steflugli.

Part of Did you miss it this week? for June 11.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota woman flew herself to Ukraine for humanitarian aid