Lemont Girl Scout Troop's Flag Sales Helps Benefit Ukrainian Children

LEMONT, IL — Children caught up in the warzone in Ukraine are getting some assistance from a Lemont Girl Scout troop that has made a sizable donation following a service project to help kids they will likely never meet get through a life experience that seems almost unimaginable.

Girl Scout troop 75626 made a donation of $2,271.32 to UNICEF to benefit children in Ukraine on Tuesday night after selling 400 Ukraine flags around the community last month.

As part of the project, the girls set up tables outside of the Lemont Public Library and outside of DIGS on Canal several times to sell Ukrane flags in order to raise the money. The troop also donated the cost of purchasing the flags and the other supplies needed (flyers, business cards, ribbons) to publicize the project and run the sales, troop leaders said.

UNICEF officials have said that the money donated by the local Girl Scout troop will go to help provide safe drinking water, healthcare, nutrition, and educational support to children affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“I was very inspired to see our Brownies feel so passionately about this war and the displacement of children in another part of the world,” troop co-leader Julie Hodek told Patch in an email on Wednesday. “I was moved by how the girls really took ownership of their project. Their enthusiasm and strong desire to make a difference gives me hope about this generation of girls and how they will change the world.”

Hodek said that many of the girls in the troop were already aware of the war in Ukraine before the project began. The girls discussed and voted on what project they would take on to raise funds and ultimately decided they wanted to see their efforts benefit children going through the pain and suffering that the war has produced.

“For them, the idea of children having to flee their homes and country to escape war was simply heartbreaking,” Hodek said. “The girls expressed a real urgency to figure out what they could do to help. In addition to raising money, the girls also wanted to express solidarity with kids in Ukraine, which is why they decided to sell flags and ask members of the community to display them.”