HUNTINGTON, WV (WOWK) – Far from the Mountain State, dollars raised by Tri-State nonprofit “Sunflower Seeds” are reaching Ukrainian citizens living along the frontlines of a two-and-a-half-year-long war.

This follows a partnership between “ Sunflower Seeds ” and “ Helping Hands Ukraine ,” a New Jersey-based nonprofit started by Ukraine native, Anastasia Bard Sirotkin.

“I was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. I lived there until I was 14 and a half,” Bard said. “I’ve lived in the United States for 32 years, so it’s kind of hard to say where I’m from.”

Though she’s built a life for her and her family in New Jersey, a piece of her is still in Kyiv.

“My father lives in the capital city, Kyiv, of Ukraine. He lives in the area that’s close to the main train station, so that’s one of the targets. There’s also a big energy sort of I guess you could say sector near that train station. It has been bombed, and there is a building a couple of minutes walk away from his large residential building that was bombed out.”

In an interview on Thursday, Bard was in Poland waiting for a flight back to the United States, decompressing from a 10-day stay in Ukraine visiting loved ones and helping survivors in the war.

“I was almost not in a healthy place in the last day and a half because it’s such a huge change. I have to tell you it’s such a relief to have normal showers, normal electricity, but the guilt is enormous now, which what do I have to be guilty for? But the guilt that I get to leave, right,” Bard said.

Responding to her, John Yeager with the “Sunflower Seeds” organization said “You’ve been through a lot, so you need to give yourself some time. This is part of a grieving process for you.”

Bard described her emotions as a “roller coaster,” getting to come home yet having to leave her dad and other relatives behind. She spent nearly two weeks delivering tourniquets to people to prevent casualties on the frontlines.

“This is an unbelievable story of courage, bravery,” Yeager said, describing Bard.

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Bard said, “I arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Independence Day of Ukraine. So, I saw the whole city out celebrating. Thank God it was a quiet day. There was no rockets, no sirens. Almost everyone had a folksy kind of embroidered shirt on which is a sign sort of Ukrainian solidarity. It was just beautiful.”

Bard said the first two days were “pure joy of what the country can be.”

For the remainder of her trip, she was awoken to the reality of building a life when your surroundings consist of war.

“It was just sirens, electricity cut off, scary sounds. I can’t even say I was walking around scared. I was walking around trying to wrap my head around ‘how do people live like this every single day?’” Bard said. “Most people I deal with have lived with this for 2.5 years. So, it was this incredible strength of ‘Oh so what? Shelter, it’s fine. We’ll move on. Oh, the stores will open in 15 minutes after the alert has lifted.’ I’m sort of sitting there with my eyebrows at the hairline trying to understand ‘how can anyone take this for 2.5 years?’”

This resilience she described opened her eyes to the innovativeness of people living in Ukraine.

“I didn’t realize how hard Ukraine was hit in energy wise. Russian rockets are targeting a lot of infrastructure in Ukraine, and the lights and energy rationing are quite severe, down to a couple of hours a day here and there,” Bard said.

Bard continued, “I was quite impressed with how industrious Ukrainian women are at scheduling when do they wash clothes, when do they cook, when do they vacuum? They’re like ‘Oh electricity will be on between 9 and 11 today, I better get things done.’ I’m like ‘Wow, okay so I don’t think of getting my chores done in that kind of way around the house because we have the luxury of always having electricity on, and in Ukraine, it has become this sort of skill of working around the times when electricity has been turned off.”

Her time serving others consisted of Bard delivering medical equipment, a central focus behind her nonprofit “Helping Hands Ukraine,” including delivery of surgical equipment made to cut through destroyed and bloody uniforms to perform lifesaving measures when needed.

She said the day-to-day actions of people living in Ukraine stand out to her, realizing how people have been forced to adapt to survive. For example, one ‘experiment’ Bard did while in Ukraine was record sounds on the street to capture how she was feeling at the time.

“In NYC for example, there’s constantly sounds of big trucks and machines and booms as a truck drive over metal plates and things like that. In Kyiv, in the capital … suddenly there’s these sounds and you are not sure ‘is that a truck, is that bus, is that a rocket?’ So, this constant feeling of being on the edge.”

Now in Poland and preparing to return to the United States, Bard said she’s having to readjust following her trip.

“I didn’t realize how I’m still jumping from sounds, right. Because there’s nothing you can do. You can’t really run for cover. You can only just sort of freeze in one spot and try to understand ‘what is that sound?’ I had to remind myself ‘I’m in Poland, I don’t have to worry about this anymore.’ That’s taking a little bit of time to get back to normal you can say. There’s millions, 40 million people, their normal is to duck for cover, which is not normal.”

Bard said because of this psychological toll the war has taken on people, she wants to continue fighting to raise money for Ukraine.

Bard said, “I can see that a lot of people just want the war to end, and they don’t know when that will be. I think that ‘unknown’ is really pressing down on a lot of people that I’ve talked to.’”

“Sunflower Seeds” alone has raised more than $50,000 since they started their organization in January 2023.

Bard said by the next time she returns to Ukraine, there will be no more war.

“I was very impressed with how strong the people are and how resolved they are. I just really hope they can go back to being more fun and a little less strong very soon.”

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