‘Run for Ukraine’ in Rochester raises money for Ukrainian soldiers needing prosthetics

Some high school seniors in Rochester were making a huge difference for Ukrainian soldiers at Soldiers Field Park on Sunday.

Four seniors from Mayo High School, Marc Zoghby, Xavi Laack, Will Laudon and Cooper Gamble, all got together over the summer because they wanted to host a 4K fundraiser to support Ukraine.

When they saw how devastating the invasion of Ukraine was, they said they just had to do something, so they organized a ‘Run for Ukraine.’

“Events are happening and they just feel so far away, so we really felt what is going on in Ukraine and really just made it a lot more personal for us,” Zoghby said.

Almost $7,000 was raised which is being donated to a non-profit based in the Twin Cities called the Protez Foundation. The non-profit’s current project is providing prosthetics for Ukrainians with a goal to help Ukrainian children, soldiers and civilians who have lost their limbs during the war so they can get free quality prosthetics here in the United States.

“Yeah, the soldiers that came here, it kind of limited the disconnect that happens when you read the headlines and say ‘oh horrible things are happening in Ukraine’ but we have soldiers here and they can tell you first-hand that it really makes it more meaningful,” Laack said.

There were some Ukrainian soldiers at the event on Sunday who came to the U.S. to get their prosthetics and go back to Ukraine. Some of them will even go back to war to help defeat the Russians, including Officer of Special Forces, Mykola Koblyinyk.

“We are really thankful to God that Americans are with us and they’re helping us in this war,” his translator, Mark Kurynytskyi, said for Koblyinyk.

You can still donate to ‘Run for Ukraine’ here.