Greensboro Reporter

Two University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) alumni have started a GoFundMe effort to raise money to help a friend they met at UNCG to flee Ukraine with her family.

Anna Kolesnik stayed in Greensboro for a year in 2003 while attending an international faculty development program at UNCG and then returned to Ukraine. She stayed close with two people she met there, Adrienne Everheart and David Taylor, who have been keeping up with her during the recent invasion by Russia.

"We had heard reports that even if you were in Ukraine and you went to the bank, you actually couldn’t get your money out,” Everheart told WFMY 2 News. “So there were problems getting cash, and we thought that this GoFundMe would help her travel, do whatever she needed to do, start her new life for her and her daughters, and hopefully will raise enough money to rescue her family, if that’s even possible."

The friends have spoken to each other on the phone, with the North Carolinians hearing gunshots and other noises because of the invasion. Kolesnik’s 9-year-old daughter hides in a safe place with pillows over her ears, Everheart and Taylor were told.

The response to the GoFundMe has been “wonderful," Everheart told WFMY 2 News, adding that it feels really good to see the support Kolesnik is getting when she's not even here yet.

Because of the requirement for all men between the ages of 18 and 60 to stay in Ukraine, Kolesnik's husband won't be able to join her in Romania. She is hoping to travel to Amsterdam next with her two daugters.