“Hope & Healing” proceeds will provide medical supplies to Ukraine
            Tickets are selling quickly but are still available for the “Hope & Healing” Benefit Dinner hosted by the Brookings Rotary Club on Sunday, Nov. 13, as final preparations for the meal are underway.
 
            The event will begin at 5 p.m. at Peace Lutheran Church, 1104 22nd Avenue South. Tickets are available on the event website, www.RotaryHope.com, or by contacting Brookings Rotary Club President Erich Olson, 605-999-1200. Individual tickets are $50 per person, and a table that seats eight is available for only $320 ($40 per person).
            “Hope & Healing” will feature an authentic Ukrainian meal, prepared by Midwest Fresh Catering with recipes provided by Ukrainian native Polina Helder, of Volga. Helder recently met with Midwest Fresh owner Mike Siegel to sample the tasting menu, including tefteli (meatballs made with buckwheat), served over mashed potatoes with gravy, borscht, homemade rye bread, European Napoleon cake, and beverages. Upon tasting Siegel’s sample dishes, Helder proclaimed it the “best Ukrainian food I’ve had in the United States. It tastes like it came from my mother’s kitchen.”
 
            In addition to dinner, the evening also will include a silent auction featuring desserts from some of Brookings’ best bakers, and a keynote presentation from noted speaker VJ Smith.
 
            All proceeds will go towards providing medical supplies for Ukraine, to be distributed by the Barlad Rotary Club located just across the border in Romania. The Brookings Rotary Club already has received a $25,000 Disaster Grant from The Rotary Foundation, and another $10,000 gift from Keith Kerruish, a former Brookings resident and SDSU student who now lives in Isle of Man, in support of the project.
 
            “We welcome the community to join us for this wonderful evening of ‘Hope & Healing’ for the people of Ukraine,” said Club President Olson. “This is one way we can participate locally in a project that has an impact around the world.”