The First World War delayed his efforts, but after Armistice he pursued the idea as part of his road-building schemes for the Pacific Northwest. The last hostilities between Canada and the United States ended in 1814 with the Treaty of Ghent, and Hill sought to commemorate that event with an appropriate public memorial. As a Quaker and humanitarian, Hill was an ardent advocate of peace. The Peace Arch is significant for its association with Samuel Hill, American millionaire and founder of the Washington State Good Roads Association and the Pacific Highway Association. The Peace Arch is valued as a symbol of the peaceful co-existence of two nations and marks the western edge of the longest undefended border in the world. “They can put pressure on our government, on our elected officials to go beyond sanctions.The Peace Arch is a monumental white-painted concrete arch located on the Canadian and American border on the 49th Parallel, between Surrey, British Columbia and Blaine, Washington. “I just want people to be aware that there are things that they can do,” Sullivan said. Sullivan and his family have sent clothing to Ukrainian orphanages and offered an apartment they own there to family members fleeing danger. The effort does not stop at a demonstration, he said. Sullivan urged supporters to donate to those caught in the conflict in whatever way they can. “We want to create some website where people can donate and we can send it to them,” Pavlyuk said. Pavlyuk, like many other Ukrainian-Americans, has tried unsuccessfully to send money to his family in Ukraine. “I want to tell Ukrainian people we love them, we support them and don't surrender,” said Walter Pavlyuk, who also has family bunkering on the Ukrainian-Russian border. The demonstrators said they are confident those in Ukraine would survive the ordeal. While discussion at the rally focused on the needs of Ukrainians, attendees also spoke proudly of their compatriots. “We need ammunition, we need airplanes to stop their planes from bombing our cities.”ĭozens of people attended a rally at the Peace Arch in Blaine. The sanctions “are going to work, but it's too late,” said her husband, Vitaliy Baydak. Baydak wants NATO forces to give Ukrainians air support. She said her family sees helicopters and aircraft overhead. Marina Baydak, another Ukrainian American in attendance, said her family lives on the border between Ukraine and Russia, and their hometown is surrounded by the Russian military. Right now, they are waiting out the conflict in cold basement bunkers. Some of her relatives have been able to evacuate to smaller villages farther from the conflict, she said, but are still trapped in Ukraine. Liliya Zourkos, a Ukrainian-American mother of four, said she has family near the military zones in Kyiv. Some demonstrators said that while sanctions may help long term, and they are grateful for the efforts, they are not enough.įor some families of those in attendance at the rally, tangible aid cannot come soon enough. Many in attendance felt frustrated at the United State’s response to the invasion. Sullivan wanted the crowd, and those passing by, to feel angry about the war. A cousin-in-law is working in a Kyiv emergency room. They told him they have heard repeated artillery fire. Sullivan’s in-laws live 20 miles from the conflict in western Ukraine, he said. “Ukrainians came up to me for days afterward asking how my family was,” Sullivan said. Sullivan said he loves the Ukrainian people and wants to show them the same support he experienced when he lived there during the terrorist attacks on Sept. Rally organizer Charles Sullivan flies the flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a sign of resistance against Russia. The least I can do is go out there and show the flag.” “I'd never thought that I would be hoisting that flag. “I actually took it out and shook it today,” Sullivan said. Until Sunday, it sat gathering dust at his home in Blaine. He picked up the red-and-black resistance flag for $1 during three years in the Peace Corps in Ukraine. Sullivan, who said he had never engaged in protest before, knew he had to do something. “I can't tell my son that there's no more Ukraine. “My son is a Ukrainian-American,” said Sullivan, 61. He and his Ukrainian wife have a 7-year-old son. Sullivan, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine and retired Canadian Border Patrol officer, organized the event after a feeling of helplessness washed over him two nights earlier. The war has weighed heavily on them as they watch families and friends endure hardships in their motherland. The United States is home to about 1 million people of Ukrainian descent, with about 21,000 living in Seattle. Ukrainian-American Vitaliy Baydak stands outside Peace Arch State Park in Blaine to support his family and friends in his home country.
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