The Ukrainian Football Federation announces the launch of a fundraising campaign for scholarships for Ukrainian child athletes whose father/mother or both parents serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The goal of the campaign is to provide assistance to young athletes-children of military personnel to engage in sports.
The initiator of the campaign is the American singer and volunteer Kelsie Kimberlin, who has Ukrainian roots and has been helping Ukrainians since the first days of the war. It is assumed that the campaign will draw attention, first of all, to young athletes who show success in sports and need support due to the impact of the war not only on the moral but also on the financial situation of their families.
The face of the campaign to help Ukrainian child athletes is Ukrainian karateka Maria Gnes (Chernivtsi, “Leader” club). We will remind you that the video with her in December-January went viral on the Internet – after Maria refused to stand on the pedestal with a representative of the aggressor country. Maria’s father is an active military man.
The fundraising project will be carried out by the Kelsie Kimberlin Foundation (https://kelsiekimberlinfoundation.org/).
It should be noted that the first to announce their support for a large and important project was the philanthropist, entrepreneur and main sponsor of UFC Vasyl Kostyuk.
At the end of August, a video clip was shot in Kyiv for the song “Champion”, which Kelsie Kimberlin dedicated to Maria Gnes, who became the main character of the clip. So we are looking forward to the release of the video on screens. Kelsie’s team is also preparing a documentary dedicated to Ukrainian child athletes and their struggle for victories not only in sports arenas, but also in life during the war.
In the photo (from left to right): William Taylor, US Ambassador to Ukraine (2006-2009), Kelsey Kimberlin, Maria Gnes, Vadym Prystaiko, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom (2020-2023).
Source: https://karate.ua/news/mariia-gnes-stala-litsem-fandraizingovoyi-kampaniyi
