Zonta District 8 Founding Partner to Zonta Club of Uzghorod
Past Governor Deb Arney, Pete Bober of Zonta Club of Corvallis and several others from D-8 were instrumental in the creation and formation of the Zonta Club of Uzhhorod. The connection with Uzhhorod came about because of the sister city relationship between Corvallis and Uzhhorod.
In 2004 several District 8 Zontians attended the chartering event in Uzhhorod and in 2015 I led a tour of several of Zonta Clubs cities including Budapest, Uzhhorod, Liviv and Warsaw. We contracted with the clubs in each city to host us. A win-win, we supported their clubs and we had a fantastic time. In 2018 Deb Arney returned with me to Uzhhorod to visit club which she had played such a big role in creating. I am still in regular contact and in normal times I travel each year to Uzhhorod and meet with their club. I even have an official title, they refer to me as their “Godfather” 😂
Uzhhorod is located directly on the border with Slovakia and within just a few miles of the Hungarian and Polish borders, as a result they and also Lviv are being inundated with refugees. Our sister city association has mounted a significant fundraising effort and we are literally hand-carrying cash and supplies to aid the city in their refugee outreach efforts.
Pete Bober had the following text exchange with long-time friend, former Uzhhorod Club President and past Area Director, Katherine Bizilla.
Katherine Bizilia:
“A Zontian from Melbourne Australia asked us to help with accommodation for her mom and her sister from Severodonetsk They are staying at my house and crying they stayed in a shelter cellar for 8 days and 4 days were traveling to get to Uzhhorod 😢😢😢😢now they are safe 🙏🙏our president Helen met them at the railway station and drove them to my house 🙏
Pete:
Great that Zontians are helping other Zontians! Are you able to connect with other clubs in D-27 EU countries who would be willing to assist refugees like you have done in their homes?
Katherine:
We are in contact every day and they are helping a lot Riga is helping all Zontians from our district we are communicating in messenger Regine from Berlin called me today and they are thinking how to help these two refugees and all the clubs are in contact 🙏🙏🙏