Murphy School students raise funds to help Ukrainian children

When a trio of students at the Murphy K-8 School began asking difficult questions about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, teacher Susan Sousa felt their concern and asked them what they wanted to do.

The three – Abigail Angell, Ryan Austin, and Nathan Marchant – are now known in the school as the Murphy Blue and Yellow Team. They have been raising money — $2,000 and counting as of early this week — to help Ukrainian kids who have been displaced by the Russian assault.

“What we were thinking about was that some kids in Ukraine have to walk a great distance and can’t sleep or eat; they just have to keep going and going,” said fourth grader Abigail Angell. “So, we thought to do a fundraiser and donate the money so kids can get on a train and just have time to sleep or sit down as they try to get away from danger.”

Added third grader Ryan Austin: “We wanted to do this to help kids in Ukraine to get food and get far away from Ukraine because of the war.”

Sousa said the idea bubbled up during a class discussion about activists and trailblazers. That prompted the students to propose a local ‘Save the Children’ effort to school principal Courtney Sheppeck, who quickly agreed to it.

Nathan Marchant, a fourth grader, hopes their activism will spread to other BPS schools and help end the conflict.

“We’re trying to stop this war because Russia has a lot of gas and gas is going higher,” he said. “We decided to start a fundraiser to help Ukraine defend themselves and so Russia could stop attacking them even though they are so powerful. We’re just hoping this money that was raised will help [the children there].”

At first, the students talked about sending cards, but with families on the move and no mail service, that wasn’t going to work. So, they began a fundraiser in much the same way they had raised money for breast cancer in the past at the school. The result was Blue & Yellow Day, held at the school earlier this month. Students wore Ukraine’s colors to school that day and were asked to bring in $1 as a donation. The team gave out yellow and blue ribbons to those who donated.

The contributions piled up at a greater pace than expected. Everyone was generous, with one family donating $100. Abigail, Ryan, and Nathan carefully divided up the work of counting the money. She oversaw the counting of the bigger bills; Ryan put each bill in the right stack, and Nathan handled counting the coins.

Now, they are hoping that the fundraiser effort will spread to other schools in Boston, kind of like the Ice Bucket Challenge. Nathan said it could become a contest among schools.

“In the end they get tricked because it’s not a race or a competition, but we say it’s a race and the result is we raise so much more for Ukraine,” he said with a laugh.

Despite the success of the effort, there remain those tough questions that kids – and adults – continue to ask.

All three youngsters, during an interview on Monday, wanted to know what Ukraine did to cause a war, and all were bothered by the fact that Russia had more resources than Ukraine – meaning that it wasn’t a fair fight.

Abigail wanted to know that if the war ended, would the Ukrainians be able to come back and rebuild their country, or would they just start a new life somewhere else. She added: “I saw that all the men over 18 had to stay behind to fight, and the fathers had to say good-bye to their family when they went away.”

The fundraiser is still open, and all proceeds go to ‘Save the Children,’ which has been helping children affected by conflict in Ukraine since 2014. Those interested in donating can contact the Murphy K-8 School on Worrell Street in Dorchester.