Hello Everyone! Thank You for Finding Us Here!
The pre-war beautiful sunflower fields of Ukraine.
PLEASE HELP BUD AND DAKOTA SAVE UKRAINIAN LIVES AS WE TRAVEL TO UKRAINE IN JANUARY 2027.
YOUR DONATIONS WILL FEED AND PROVIDE MEDICINES, CLOTHING, MEDICAL EQUIPMENT AND CRITICAL SUPPLIES FOR CHILDREN, ORPHANAGES, ELDERLY VILLAGERS AND PEOPLE UNDER FIRE IN THE WAR THERE. PLEASE HELP – AND LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR 4 PREVIOUS HUMANITARIAN TRIPS BELOW!
Kyiv, Ukraine, before the war.
We are Bud Patterson and Dakota Sammons, two Servers at the highly unique Jonathan’s on Brick Seafood and Steakhouse in Delavan, Wisconsin! If you’re reading this, there’s an excellent chance we just met, you noticed our badges and asked for more information. However you found us, we’re just very thankful for your kindred spirit and support!
As you understand, the horrible, genocidal war in Ukraine rages on, now in its 5th year! I still remember the exact moment the war started in February 2022. I was on the phone with a dear friend who lives there, talking about the pending invasion from the north. I was begging her to leave for safety, but she said she couldn’t leave due to her elderly parents needing her to stay and take care of them. She heard explosions outside her window and said she was going to take cover. I was crying and telling her I was so very sorry she was now in the worst possible situation imaginable. A lot of terrible and tragic things have obviously happened since then.
In 2022, I decided to do something to help people in Ukraine survive this awful war. I decided to ask for help for the Ukrainian people, promising donors I would personally take their money to Ukraine and deliver critical items to children, families and elderly people there. Chef Jonathan and his amazing wife Tiffany got behind us, allowing me to wear the badge that simply invites our customers to join our project – and the response was truly INCREDIBLE! In March of 2023, I departed for Ukraine for the first of three humanitarian missions to deliver food, water, clothing, medicines, orthopedic equipment, school supplies and more – all purchased with donations from our great Jonathan’s community. I invited a young coworker, Dakota Sammons, to join me and he eagerly and fearlessly agreed. And together Dakota and I have done three high-impact humanitarian missions to Ukraine since 2023!
A quick summary:
Your donations purchased food, medicines and wheelchairs for the people of a small village near Kherson – only a few miles from the war front! The woman in the photo below receiving a wheelchair was 98 years old!
Your donations paid for the surgeries of two ladies who had been found alive, buried in rubble when their apartments in Kyiv were bombed!
Your donations provided food, fresh fruits (a luxury,) maintenance supplies, school supplies and an electric generator for an orphanage in Irpin. Perhaps you remember Irpin, one of the first cities invaded in 2022. Perhaps you heard of the worst atrocities there… We even threw a holiday party with some entertainers for the kids there. They had never had such a party.
And we actually just completed purchase of a generator and some cleaning supplies for that Irpin orphanage.
Our hope is to visit and supply more small schools and orphanages in the near future!
Your donations bought our friend Katya, who can barely walk, an electric wheelchair, so she can leave her house and see her neighbors.
Your donations bought food for villagers whose farms have been destroyed and mined.
The sign in the foreground says "Danger! Mines!!" These farmers' lands were heavily mined and their equipment nearly almost destroyed - but we bought them hope for tomorrow!
Your donations have purchased food and school supplies for a new kindergarten built in the basement of a bomb shelter. Your donations supported the very brave kindergarten teacher there.
And your donations purchased a $2000 one-year supply of a very rare but life-saving medicine for this 16-year-old girl who, we were told, cannot eat without this medicine.
These are some, but not all, of the things we’ve accomplished with your help. Thank you – and please feel your power, the power of community and kindness and human decency and generosity as you reach across the world to sustain and heal others.
Unfortunately, there is more need, more desperation, more tragedy we must work to overcome. More children at risk, more orphans, more single-moms trying to hold it together, more elderly people living in one remaining room of their bombed houses. More injured people. And so, Dakota and I will, again, travel to Ukraine in January 2027 to deliver food, water, medicines, medical equipment and supplies, clothing, and much more to the most needy and traumatized people in Ukraine. And for this reason, we wear our badges again and ask for your help. Because without your help, there are no medicines, no wheelchairs or food etc. YOU are 100% responsible for all of it.
If you support our next mission, Dakota and I will once again risk our lives to go deep into Ukraine and deliver aid. We’ll capture our work with video and pictures and update you daily while there. You will easily see the immediate impact of your donations at work, just as before. Believe me, this is my favorite part of the whole thing – showing you how your donations help and heal others in the middle of a genocidal war, halfway around the world.
As an example of the dangers Dakota and face, this is a small scene from my hotel window in Odesa, Ukraine, taken one evening while the city was under attack by Shaheed drones. Listen closely, you can hear them flying around the city, invisible and scary.
Please help us to bring humanitarian aid, brotherly love and care and humanity back to the heavily traumatized people of Ukraine. Thank you to all - updates to come!
