The Members-at-Large: My UNWLA Life initiative celebrates the stories and contributions of Ukrainian women who are part of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America without belonging to a local branch. Through personal narratives, photographs, and reflections, the project highlights their journeys of service, advocacy, cultural preservation, and sisterhood. It shows how even outside of established chapters, individual members carry the mission of the UNWLA —promoting Ukrainian heritage, supporting humanitarian causes, and empowering women—while building meaningful connections across generations and geographies.

Olya Czerkas, St. Petersburg, FL

MAL Liaison

This candle was one of the first purchases my parents made when they arrived in the United States. To keep the Ukrainian Christmas Eve traditions in our family alive every year, the candle is lit, prayers are said, and the traditional 12 course Christmas Eve meal is served. This candle has been lit to begin Christmas Eve in my family for the past 70 years. It has been passed from one generation to the next, reminding us of warm memories of the past, the love of family and Ukraine, and is a positive inspiration for years to come.

The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and the Congress for International Leadership (COIL) has provided UNWLA Branch #124 the opportunity to bring medical staff from Ukraine to study at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa. I worked directly with both organization in establishing a positive, educational, and memorable experience for both the Ukrainian visitors and the host families who housed our guests during their stay in the Tampa Bay area. Working as lead on these projects has been an inspirational and life-changing experience.

Dance, music, art, and children have all been important and essential parts of my life. Combining these loves over many years, I have taken the opportunity to educate children about Ukrainian culture, music, and traditions through dance.  As an instructor, choreographer, and director of children’s dance groups for many years in Lorain, OH, and St. Petersburg, FL, and for 28 years at Soyuzivka’s Tennis and Children’s Summer camps, I have taught children about Ukraine and Ukrainian culture. I am proud that our love of the Ukrainian culture and traditions continues over many generations. This photo is from 1987.

My pride is my family. My parents raised me to take pride in being Ukrainian and insisted that I speak only Ukrainian in our home. They sent me to Ukrainian school, PLAST, Soyuzivka, and encouraged me to take active rolls in Ukrainian events. My mother embroidered our clothing, while my father, being a tailor, sewed the traditional Ukrainian outfits which our family proudly wears.

Tania Bardyn, Bothell, WA

I have a passion for jewelry, particularly Ukrainian jewelry. Supporting Ukrainian artisans became a crucial form of advocacy for me when the war in Ukraine began. I purchased this traditional Ukrainian namysto necklace from Oksana Boriychuk, on Etsy, to support her craftsmanship. Every time I wear it, I receive compliments and questions, giving me the chance to advocate for Ukrainian artisans. This necklace has become one of my favorite pieces.

Ukraine, resilient in the face of adversity, stands tall among the world’s leading suppliers of sunflower seeds. Despite their origins in the southwest US and Mexico, sunflowers have found a home in Ukraine and flourish across the globe. This photograph, taken in January 2025 in Archydal, Saskatchewan, Canada, captures a sunflower enduring the harsh winter. Just as this sunflower remains steadfast in the cold, the spirit of Ukrainians remains unyielding and strong throughout the challenges of war.

Lisa McDonald. Casper, WY

Education. As a Teacher, I love to educate and as a Ukrainian I love to educate people about things Ukrainian. My baba and mama were prolific Pysankarky in Edmonton. Since 2002, I have been holding pysanka classes in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. In 2020, I was featured in the Wyoming Arts Council Artscapes magazine showcasing some of my mother and baba’s pysanky. In 2022, when the war started, we raised over $12,000 to help with the war effort.

Alexandra Hursky, Ellicott City, MD

Nadia Kachalenko, Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Larysa Martyniuk, Colorado Springs, CO

Cultural Advocacy

This porcelain mask “Motanka” is included in the Exhibit “Masks” 2025 at the Museum of Fine Art in Fort Collins, Colorado. 

As an artist, I created a visual statement which incorporates and emphasizes Ukraine’s deep cultural roots. The “Motanka” doll has resurfaced as a symbol of cultural resistance and renewal in Ukraine. I incorporated the symbolic essence of these ancient talismans into my Motanka which will be on display with a personal statement alongside it. I hope that viewers of the exhibit will have a deeper understanding of Ukraine’s cultural roots dating back 5,000 years to the Trypillian Culture, which thrived in the Chernihiv region.

Advocacy  

Since the beginning of the full-scale war “Ukrainians in Denver” have been meeting every Saturday on an I-25 overpass bridge in Denver, Colorado. No matter the weather–rain, wind, snow or extreme heat–we gather with flags and banners letting thousands of vehicles passing beneath us know that Ukraine is still fighting for its freedom. Rostia Stoecker, another UNWLA MAL from Colorado Springs, and I feel honored to be a part of this contingent of Ukrainian American patriots, raising public awareness of this horrific war.

Advocacy 

This gathering in front of the Pioneers Museum in Colorado Springs is one of the vigils I organized in support of Ukraine. Although many of us drive up to Denver to attend pro-Ukrainian rallies at our State Capitol, I feel gatherings in our city have an impact as well, especially when local news media cover our event. We have to do whatever is in our power to keep the American public informed as to what is happening in Ukraine.

Maria Saskiw, Cedar Point, NC

Cultural Advocacy

I am delighted to share my wonderful experience in spreading the magic of our pysanky. Not only is it a unique and sophisticated art form, but it also encapsulates history, sociology and anthropology. About a decade ago, I conducted the first workshop on pysanky in Mt Airy, NC.

The pysanky workshops continue to this day, long after I moved away. They are held at the MT. Airy Museum of Regional History. The art of making pysanky has found a welcoming home in this community in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. 

Christina Tershakovec, Huntingdon Valley, PA

(Photo 1) Advocacy and cultural awareness begins early and at home. I am about two years old in this photo, in front of the then newly erected Washington, DC, statue of Taras Shevchenko, who wisely counseled “Учітесь, читайте, І чужому научайтесь, Й свого не цурайтесь.” I grew up outside of Washington, DC, in the loving home of Eugene and Anisja Gill (Євген і Анізія Ґіль), steeped in a love of Ukraine, the Ukrainian language and culture.  Now, as Chair of UNWLA’s National Advocacy Committee, that deeply instilled love of and respect for my heritage empowers my advocacy work.  

(Photo 2) This is a photo of my father, Eugene Gill, in front of the Shevchenko monument, which was unveiled in 1964 in Washington, D.C. Throughout his life, my father was involved in Ukrainian causes in the community as well as with the Ukrainian Catholic Church.  

Oksana Stanko, Basking Ridge, NJ

 One of my proudest professional accomplishments has been educating an entire generation of Ukrainian American children from 1987 through 2009. Beginning with teaching in the svitlychka sponsored by UNWLA Branch 61, through the challenging upper matura grades in the Lesia Ukrainka School of Ukrainian Studies, Whippany NJ, I shared my knowledge of Ukrainian history, culture, literature, music and my love of our beautiful Ukrainian heritage. This photo from May 1990, shows nine of my young students, two of whom went on to complete their comprehensive matura exams in 2005 under my guidance.

On the occasion of the thousandth anniversary of Christianity in Kyivan Rus, UNWLA Branch 61 sponsored an exhibit of icons and sacred religious items at the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, NJ, on December 4, 1988. Included in the program was a presentation on iconography by Andrij Maday, artist and iconographer. In the photo are Terenia Rakoczy, branch president, Oksana Stanko, education chair, and Elizabeth Buniak, corresponding secretary.

The tradition of creating pysanky goes back 2000 years, before the time of Christ.  This workshop sponsored by UNWLA Branch 61, held in Whippany NJ, featured Dr. Natalka Irena Bilenki. An expert pysanka painter, she enjoyed keeping this folk art alive through workshops that she conducted for Ukrainian children. In this photo, Stefan Stanko, Bohdan Paslawskyj and Victoria Baranetsky, proudly holding their own pysankas. An article on the workshop appeared in The Star Ledger on March 21, 1991

Maria Holian, Kalamazoo, MI

Many years ago, I received a doll that I clothed in a dress that my mother had embroidered. This dress is a constant reminder of my mother’s love for me and her gifted ability with needlework.  Embroidering calms the soul and strengthens the embroiderer’s ability to endure difficult times. Embroidery provides the embroiderer and the receiver of the embroidery peace of mind and heart.

At a fundraiser for medical assistance for Ukraine at St. Thomas More Catholic Student Parish in Kalamazoo, I had an opportunity to lead the congregation in prayer.  I began with Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I told people gathered there about the two rainbows, God’s hopeful sign, that appeared in Kyiv in February of 2022 before the invasion.  In conclusion, I prayed Боже Великий, Єдиний in Ukrainian and then translated the prayer into English. The congregation expressed its appreciation and generously donated for medical assistance.

Melody, a composition by composer Myroslav Skoryk, expresses many concepts related to the life of Ukrainians, as well as other nations. After a year of practicing this music, I asked myself why the same theme is played in so many keys on the piano.  The composition begins with a melody created with an A minor 5-finger pattern performed in the middle keys of the piano. Then this pattern is played in many other scales extending to the upper and lower keys, reaching the entire keyboard.  Thus, it is in life: we are born in one place and then life takes us into various areas of the world, yet the theme in our heart is the same, even when expressed in various sounds.