Local company and organization kick off donation drive for Ukraine
Mar 28, 2022, 1:27 PM | Updated: Jun 18, 2022, 8:44 pm
A local company helped kicked off a weeklong supply drive Monday, collecting food donations to send to Ukraine, while trying keep all of its employees accounted for.
“Vivint was really worried about it,” Zachary Ibarra, the program manager for Vivint Gives Back said. “We have over employees who live in Ukraine full-time. We were worried about their safety, their families, their friends and of course their country and homeland.”
Ibarra says all of their employees are safe and accounted for. Some, he says, have fled the country with millions of others, others have remained. Ibarra said they keep in regular contact with them, “to ask if they have new needs arising. If they’re trying to get out. If they need anything to stay.”
Ibarra says since the start of the invasion Vivint has raised more than $100,000 in donations to buy needed supplies for Ukrainians. And recently, he said, the local organization Stand with Ukraine approached them for help to collect essentials for Ukrainian citizens.
“They asked if they could use our space to help collect these supplies and we jumped at the opportunity,” he said.
Ibarra said the Ukrainian government has told them their people’s biggest needs are rice, pasta, baby formula and any kind of canned protein.
“We’re excited to see them sent over and to see these images come back of Ukrainians holding the items that our local Utahns have donated.”
People can drop off donations at the Vivint Gym in Provo from March 28 to April 1 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
