Prairie Village’s donation of $10,000 worth of radios to its Ukrainian sister city, Dolyna, have been received and are being put into action.
Prairie Village developed a sister city relationship with Dolyna, Ukraine, in the early 2000s. Though the two cities hadn’t been in touch often in recent years, when the news about the Russian invasion broke, Prairie Village city staff worked to rekindle the relationships.
Dolyna is located in the western part of the country in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, or district.
The western Ukrainian city is acting as a hub for the collection of humanitarian aid.
After reconnecting with Dolyna, Prairie Village city officials wanted to support Dolyna in some fashion.
Dolyna Mayor Ivan Dyriv put together a list of necessary but hard-to-find items such as walkie talkies, body armor and heavy-duty portable power chargers.
Prairie Village Mayor Eric Mikkelson tossed out the idea of a $10,000 cash donation to help, but Dyriv said it wouldn’t be helpful because the listed items aren’t easy to acquire even with cash flow.
The city landed on a $10,000 donation of about 200 walkie talkie radios to send to Dolyna.
This week, Dyriv sent a “thank you” letter to Mikkelson for the walkie talkie donation.
Dyriv thanked the mayor and city council, as well as Prairie Village residents. He also thanked City Administrator Wes Jordan, who handled organizational issues.
The American flag now flies outside of Dolyna City Hall as a sign of gratitude, he said.
“From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, Mr. Mayor, all the members of the Prairie Village City Council and all the residents of your city for allocating the funds to purchase such important radios for our defense and for all your support of our community and our country,” Dyriv wrote to Mikkelson via email. “These radios will be sent to those branches of the armed forces of Ukraine where residents of our community serve.”
This story was originally published on the Shawnee Mission Post.
