New friends and strangers came together in Halifax to make sure a young Ukrainian girl celebrated her eighth birthday in style.
Masha Starynchunk flew into Halifax last week with her mother and brother, and is heading to Saskatoon later this week where her family plans to settle. They were forced to flee their home in Ukraine – the Russian invasion there has displaced at least 15 million people.
Kelly Lynn, who lives in Saskatoon, will be helping the family when they arrive, but she wanted to make sure Masha’s birthday didn’t go unnoticed.
So she posted to Reddit, asking Haligonians if they would help celebrate, and that’s how the party came to be.
“Just to see what they’ve been through and to learn the seven-year-old was just devastated at the thought of nobody being able to come to her birthday, it just really puts things in perspective that this is just happening to normal kids,” Lynn said.
“It tugged at the heart strings hearing she was worried she wouldn’t have a birthday.”
Jade Fraser whipped up a cake and made sure there were plenty of snacks on hand. Robyn Cosh stopped by with a present and helped to decorate.
“I’ve got a lot of nieces and nephews and I thought everyone loves gifts, especially when you’re little, so I didn’t want her to miss getting a gift on her birthday,” Cosh said.
Masha’s mother, Anastasia, said she was overwhelmed by the generosity of strangers.
“I was impressed, surprised, (excited) at the same time,” she told Global News.
And the smile on Masha’s face said it all.
“She wake up today at three o’clock, then at four and asked me, ‘Oh can we start?’ For her, it’s most important celebration in the year.”
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