Orysia Demyaniuk. Photo from her personal archive. Fair use. Translated from Ukrainian by Svitlana Bregman This story is part of a series of essays and articles written by Ukrainian artists who decided to stay inside Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This series is produced in collaboration with the Folkowisko Association/Rozstaje.art, thanks to co-funding by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through a grant from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. In 2022, Orysia Demyaniuk postponed her athletic career to collect donations to buy cars and military equipment for a unit where her brother and husband serve on the frontline. Demyaniuk is a five-time champion for Ukraine in the 1,500-meter race. She is a mentor at the Ukrainian Academy of Leadership and a founder of the running club. Her husband, Dmytro Demyaniuk, a two-time Olympic Games contender, has been on the front line since April 2022, two months after Russia invaded Ukraine. He was inspired to go by Orysia’s brother, Yurii. Yurii had been living in Poland for three years, but he returned to Ukraine to defend his homeland. Orysia also wanted to join her husband and brother, but they persuaded her to stay behind and help them from afar. Dmytro and Orysia. Photo from Orysia's personal archive. Fair use. The athlete channeled all her social capital and energy to help the brigade where her brother and her husband were serving. To start with, she was able to locate three vehicles to donate to the cause. Vehicles are basically disposable during war. They are under constant fire and are destroyed every day. The military must constantly fundraise to buy more. Orysia was so driven to help the war effort that she began to organize public charity events to benefit her close circle and other people in need. She started a fee-based race to support residents of the temporarily occupied Kherson and charity training sessions to accept donations for tactical medical kits. She went further and co-organized the “100,000 Race For Body Armor Vests,” where they managed to fundraise UAH 2 million (USD 54,147) and engaged people from 37 countries. One morning, Orysia received a call from her brother Yurii. “Well,” he declared, “On second thought, we decided with the fellows that we need an armored personnel carrier (APC).” She was a little shocked but did not lose her zeal. Yuri explained that they had suffered losses that they wouldn’t have if they’d had an APC, and Orysia began the quest. First, she just posted to her Instagram story. People were poking fun at her, asking how on earth was she planning to find an APC? After all, it’s nothing like buying a bicycle. Her brother helped her to find the armored vehicle. An experienced mechanic, he used to buy spare parts on a Polish online market platform, which is where he found the first armored personnel carrier. And then another because the first vehicle had already been sold. Next, it was Orysia’s turn. On the morning Yurii called, the members of the Plast Scout organization had a meeting with Orysia to discuss the “body armor” race. She suggested they should change it to “I Run For An APC,” to fundraise for Brigade 103 of the Civil Defense. Hundreds of people came to Stryiskyi Park in Lviv in early December and contributed to the cause. You could also run for the APC online. They managed to quickly raise UAH 600,000 (USD 16,243), but they needed twice as much. “It was the festive season. At the end of December, everyone was probably buying Christmas presents,” Orysia recalls. “I didn't feel like saying, ‘Don't buy your kids presents. Donate to the APC instead!’ But I kept posting IG stories, saying that little boys were playing with their toy cars and big guys needed an APC. Let's make a present for them, too. And that is how the donations started coming in from all over.” The armored personnel carrier was demilitarized. And the military needed to have it armored. In a joint effort, they managed to raise UAH 1,221 million (USD 33,056) to get that APC. It took a long time but Oryssia did not give up: she called the banks hundreds of times, she asked questions, she searched for different solutions. “To withdraw money in another country, you need to have it declared. I did not have a volunteer account. It was just my personal bank card. Then, I had to worry lest I am put in jail. God bless all the bank consultants for how much I pestered them with all my questions about all possible details.” Orysia is laughing. It took several weeks before the APC, not uneventfully, managed to cross the Ukrainian border from Poland.