
Help Sonya reach for the stars!
Donation protected
This fundraiser is for my dear friend's daughter, Sonya, a 14-year-old girl from Ukraine who came to the US last year with just her mother and two sisters to escape the war, with father and other family having to stay behind.
Thankfully, with the support of many kind people, Houston Rhythmic Gymnastics Club welcomed Sonya to their family last year, which lifted her spirit, greatly helped her pull through the initial trauma of the war as well as helped ease the pain of being separated from her loved ones. Sonya has been training and competing at home in Ukraine since 4 years old and thanks to her continued hard work and guidance of her coaches here in the US she and her team earned a bronze medal at this June's USA National Championship. This year Sonya was promoted from level 6 to level 9 and dreams of continuing her training and earning another medal for the team.
Unfortunately, club fees and all the related travel expenses are very expensive and covering all in full is something that Sonya's mother is unable to afford at the moment, so we’re fundraising for the remainder necessary to continue. Now, it's certainly not an essential need, but so many years of hard work are not easy to give up on, especially when we believe the hardship is temporary and so much was already taken away from this family.
As a ballet and volleyball mom, I care deeply about the cause because I know firsthand how important it is to support your child in their passion and how devastating it would be not to be able to do so.
GoFundMe created several roadblocks and set forth some requirements in order for this fundraiser to go live. I was required to provide a lot of personal information, so here it goes:
Name: Maria Barak
Occupation: Accountant
Employer: Sunrun, San Francisco, CA
Integrity: extreme
Beneficiary: Sofiya Kolomiyts (14 yr old)
How the funds will be distributed: because of the legal status of Sofiya and her family and GoFundMe requirements, I was not able to set them up as direct beneficiaries. For one, they do not have a social security number or a permanent US address which are required for money transfers. The funds will be handed to the girl's mother. All legal and financial proof of fund transfers will be made available immediately upon request.
Fundraising team (2)
Maria Barak
Organizer
San Francisco, CA
Nadiia Tereshchenko
Team member