This weekend, New England Everyday Goods in Jaffrey and The Black Swan in Peterborough are teaming up to send support to Ukrainian refugees.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, people who visit either store will get a sunflower punch card. If they go to both shops, they will receive two hole punches and a packet of sunflower seeds. Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine.
“Our hope is people will plant the seeds, they’ll germinate, and by the time they’re in bloom hopefully things will be different in Ukraine,” said Jim Therriault, owner of New England Everyday Goods.
Both locations will be collecting donations for Ukraine and selling sunflower-themed items to collect funds for refugees. The new Optimist Cafe in the New England Everyday Goods building will be selling sunflower-seed cookies, and profits from the sale of the cookies will be donated.
Both stores will have sales, and people participating in the event will be entered into a random drawing with the opportunity to win one of six prizes, which have a combined value of more than $500.
The Black Swan owner Susan Voss always hosts a round-robin event around Mother’s Day, and Therriault often participates. It’s a way to collaborate with other local businesses and engage with the community in a fun way, but this week, after more than two years of a global pandemic and the war in Ukraine raging on, Voss said she and Therriault wanted to do something a little different.
“I think that the condition of the world is on people’s minds. Ukraine is one more thing that speaks to the sadness and violence going on in the world,” Voss explained.
Both Therriault and Voss are aware that people in the community want to know how they can help Ukrainians. This weekend, they hope to make the event “as easy as possible so everybody benefits,” Therriault said.
This year’s event has taken a lot of organization and research, as Therriault wanted to make sure donations are getting to Ukrainian refugees as directly and completely as possible.
Originally, they planned to work with the humanitarian organization Heart to Heart International, but after reading the dispatches in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript from Ilona Kwiecien, a Jaffrey resident who recently returned from helping Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Therriault and Voss are hoping to use her connections to donate funds.
“Ilona has direct contact with individuals and organizations in Poland, ensuring that all of the donated money goes to humanitarian aid,” Therriault said.
Therriault said residents’ willingness to help people in need surprises people who come from more-urban areas, and both business owners hope this weekend people will extend that same “neighbor helping neighbor” mentality to those suffering abroad.
“Most people don’t come into the store just for merchandise,” Therriault said. “They come for the atmosphere and to chat.”
Voss hopes this event will bring “an expanded awareness and embracing of things people can do, whether that’s showing support in their yard [by planting sunflower seeds] or continuing to collect donations or just having awareness and empathy.”
“So many people have been so dragged down over the last couple of years. Part of the reason Jim and I do what we do is to provide a space where people can come and be uplifted,” Voss said.
The Black Swan is at 107 Wilton Road in Peterborough, and New England Everyday Goods is at 16 Colls Farm Road in Jaffrey.