CAZENOVIA — To support her home country of Ukraine, Cazenovia High School sophomore Khrystyna Barna has been volunteering once a week to collect food and supplies for the victims of the Russian invasion and Ukraine’s military.

On Sundays, from 2 to 6 p.m., Barna and her father, Serhii Barna, are collecting donations at Lakeland Park. The pair is also occasionally assisted by Barna’s uncle Serhiy Yavorskiy.

“We are willing to send medical [supplies], personal hygiene products, canned food, snacks, clothes, dry foods, baby clothes and baby food, shoes, etc.,” Barna said. “We are helping people who came under fire and lost their homes and had to leave Eastern Ukraine for the Western part of Ukraine. With the money from the donations, we are buying and sending body armor from Europe for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. . . Food and clothes are sent by the ocean in containers, [and medical] supplies are sent by airlines.”

Barna was born in Ternopil, Ukraine, where she spent the first 12 years of her life.

According to Barna, she and her family to the United States in 2019 in search of a better, more secure life.

“With that being said, I must say that since the first day in the U.S. we were more Ukrainian than ever before,” she said. “We are currently going to Ukrainian church, me and my brother are attending Saturday Ukrainian school in Syracuse, [and] we are visiting all the Ukrainian programs, events, and festivals. Ukrainian culture, music, and clothes are very popular in Syracuse’s community, which makes me happy to be who I am — a Ukrainian.”

Barna’s grandparents on both sides remain in Ukraine along with her cousins and her father’s sister and her husband.

In addition to encouraging donations of food and supplies, Barna is also asking the Cazenovia community to consider supporting Ukraine via a charitable foundation set up by famed Ukrainian entertainer Serhiy Prytula, who coordinates a volunteer supply center for the Ukrainian Ground Forces and civilian volunteers.

“He buys supplies for the Ukrainian Army through Europe,” said Barna. “He knows how to treat [the] money that gets donated every day. . . He bought a lot of technology for the Ukrainian Army already and will continue to do that. . . The foundation of Prytula in three and a half hours gathered over $300,000 [for] a drone.”

For more information on the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, visit prytulafoundation.org/en.

A list of needed medical supplies is available at projectcure.org/app/uploads/2020/12/Ukraine-SupplyList.pdf.