April 4, 2022 • 23 mins
The conversation continues...
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Conversations with Olivia Jade and I Heart Radio Podcast. Guys,
welcome back to the podcast. This is episode two, or
I guess you could say part two with Val and
we're going to jump right into it and talk all
things Ukraine like we did last week. You kind of
(00:24):
touched on Max was in Ukraine when all of this happened. Um, yeah,
what was that like when the invasion first happened, like
for him? And um, you guys, Yeah, my brother was
in the Key of which is the capital, and he
was out there filming The World of Dance. He was
(00:44):
on the on the judging panel, was one of the judges,
and and uh, you know, I kept checking in because
here the news was reporting there were people, you know,
they're they're mobilizing an army around the border and hundred
nine Russian soldiers around the border, and and like it
(01:05):
was boiling, the pot was boiling. And and you know
the problem now is we're either a so distracted, uh
be maybe lost overwhelmed and see potentially lost a little
faith in the in the news. And so you know,
it's kind of like the boy who Cried Wolf. I'm
(01:27):
not sure, you know, I couldn't tell that there just
exaggerating for the sake of another headline. This was like
really happening. So I try to keep calm until, you know,
until the situation. Yeah, because at this point, right like
the U S News you're saying, was reporting that this
is all going down in Ukraine. But when you're talking
(01:49):
to Max, he's like, everything's fine over here. Yeah, yeah,
he was saying that. He was saying that, you know,
the people are optimistic, and they're just saying that. Listen,
it's you know there, they're on the east side of
the country, northeast, and you know, it's there's no way
and it's not gonna you know, it's older or whatever.
(02:12):
It's just kind of posturing, if you will. And you know,
a hundred ninety thousand soldiers around the borders, not that
it doesn't sound like posturing, but they were optimistic. And
I think again it's Ukrainians, you know, two thousand and fourteen,
just to get back to little history, Russia came in
and took an entire Crimean peninsula which was part of Ukraine,
(02:35):
just took it, just took it. You know, it's like
America going in and just taking Montreal and Quebec. The
entire thing, you know, from Canada and if you could
imagine Ukraine in two thousand fourteen, we're just not you know,
militarily equipped to defend itself. And it was such a
(02:55):
shock because it was unprovoked and it was just like
the military just rolled in and took the land and
claimed it as theirs. I mean, it's my bothering. The
point is that at that point the country was like, listen,
that's that's a problem, and we need to you know,
we need we need to up our military game because
you know, no one's gonna come and rescue us. So
(03:18):
from two thousand and fourteen country and it's people have
really you know, started training, they started preparing, and mentally
they were ready to like do this, you know, and
I think this was, yes, an unprovoked invasion and completely
more than they ever thought it was going to become.
(03:41):
But they, you know, the way my brother kind of
put it as like a lot of these guys they
were they were ready. They were like, Okay, let's do this.
You know, it's like when you get bullied in school
every day for you know that after one after the
day after day after day, he takes this and then
he takes you this, and he takes a lunch money
(04:02):
and takes a lunch, and then at some point he
just you know, picks you up and and it's ready
to fight. You know. At some point you're just like,
you know what, let's I've been waiting for this. Let's
let's just do this, so that let's just do this,
you know. And so I think a lot of a
lot of the country felt like that. And then but obviously,
(04:23):
you know, it creates a lot of havoc and uncertainty.
And anyway back to my brother, the point is that
he was on a production and they were telling him that,
you know, don't worry, it's gonna be fine. And and
literally I spoke to him on Wednesday and he was like, bro,
I'm like, dude, are you watching the news. It's like crazy, right,
(04:43):
And he's like, I'm fine, I don't worry about it.
That's in America. They're reporting this in America. Don't don't trip.
I'm good. And then I went to live. I'm like cool,
you know, I take his word like cool. Yeah, I'm
like cool. And then like literally at four in the
morning and calls me, because you know, the time difference,
(05:04):
I think it was like, yeah, four in the morning
and on a Thursday, and I was February four when
they started in waiting and the rock kids started falling,
you know, and people started scrambling and it became really tense,
and he called me and I've never seen my brother
really be that. That shook, like, you know, my my
(05:27):
brothers is a tough dude. And he was like he
had tears in his eyes. I mean, he was really scared.
And I know, the way I described this emotion was
like it was it was fear because he was like,
you know, he just wanted to get home. It was
regret because he was like I and then I I
(05:48):
messed up. You know, he used a different word, but um,
you know I really really messed up, Like I should
have I should have left, I should have left a
little sooner. I don't know what to do. And then
it was like so fear, regret, and then it was sadness.
You know, he was just sad because as he was
trying and you know, kind of calling me. And then
(06:11):
we started scrambling for resources to get him out because
by that time, the US embassy and consulate were empty, right,
so by that time we've already extracted all the American
citizens for the most part, government officials. So it's not
like he could go to the U. S. Embassy and
show his passport and be like protecting, because that's what
happens around the world, So cherish your American passport, everybody
(06:32):
that's not American citizen. Um, we started scrambling to kind
of get him out, and as that, you know, it's happening,
the reality that all of his friends don't have that
same luxury, you know, the people that now he built
a relationship with, and he's looking at his manager out there,
he's looking at his you know, post buddy, and you
(06:55):
know they are he sees fear in their lives, in
their eyes, like where they gonna do with their family,
and and now, you know, for the right reasons, he
stops being the concerned the priority of production, even though
they you know, they helped them out. Obviously they did
their best, but like I said, all the structure collapses immediately,
(07:18):
and you just it becomes chaotic survival. You know, you're
just thinking about your loved ones and your immediate kind
of safety. So yeah, so he uh, you know, I'm
not going to get into how we were able to
get him into more or less safety. But he you know,
he was he was at the hotel um kind of
(07:42):
in the center, but you know, away from a lot
of the the real big fighting. Uh still sirens still,
you know, bomb shelter definitely, you know, bombs being dropped.
But like I said, at least and it was crazy
you faced on me. Across the street was this police
(08:02):
department and there was literally just lines and lines and
lines all day long around the block of civilian civilians
just coming up and picking up arms, regular people just
you know, just ready to fight, just ready to fight.
(08:35):
So obviously Max is in Poland now he's kind of
helping with like sheltering and helping people that are coming
from Ukraine like find a spot, right, yes, so he
kind of like that. That's the thing is like there's
a lot of people that want to help, and there's
like where do you start? Where do you begin? Like
how do I do this? Just donate to the Red
(08:56):
Red Cross or like where is that going to go?
And I was gonna, you know, um, but in real
time he was literally taking his own funds and like
putting people up like here comes you know, if you
if you get to the border, like I'll, I'll take
care of the housing for a month so you could
(09:16):
get your bearings, and like he was doing that. You know,
one family at a time, one person at a time. Um,
you do what you can, you know. And for us, obviously,
the dance community has a lot of our friends and
a lot of our friendships, and so it is heavily
(09:37):
Ukrainian dancers that we kind of gravitated to helping in
that instance, uh, get out of the country and as
far as you know, some some accommodations you know, help them,
help them, helping them out logistically, but also a little
bit financially. But yeah, now he's in Ukraine doing that
(09:57):
and um, making sure. So in the meantime in America,
My my father, you know, he grew up in that
country way more than than I did. You know, he
grew up in the Ukraine. He was born there, and
he was just angry, restless and really just angry. He
was angry that this is just happening. And he didn't
(10:20):
want to just donate some of his money so it's
not he like, really he's about that life. So he
was like, well, you gotta do this for me, you
gotta you know, think of a name. Uh, let's you know,
help me set up an account. I'm gonna need you
to you know, promote it and then I'll take care
of everything else. I'm like, Dad, what are you doing?
Like he wants to start from scratch. He wants to
(10:42):
create his own thing, not piggyback off somebody else that's
starting some um like aid Foundation for Ukraine. He's yeah,
he's he want I want to start a humanitarian and
don't want to start a charity. And we're gonna do
this and this is what I want to do. And
I'm like that, Like, we have a business to run.
There's a lot of ways we can help that doesn't
(11:03):
entail us starting you know, an entire infrastructure of support,
Like you have no resources of how to ship things out.
We were not in the import export game, Like we
don't know this stuff. Uh. And he didn't want to
hear it. And it's crazy, like his relentless list is wild.
And he was like, and this was eighteen days ago literally, uh.
(11:26):
And we started Verona. I came up with that name
because that's the address of where he grew up in
the Ukraine and where then my brother was born. And
I was born uh and UH it's a Ukrainian humanitarian
aid and it's basically and now we're officially recognized the
(11:47):
nonprofit organization. And basically we we started with an Amazon
registry because you know, obviously we have reached beyond the
tri state area of Jersey, New York, Connecticut. UH, and
we wanted our fans to kind of help UM start
to go fund me and and and collect money. It
(12:07):
felt also kind of a little bit not too much,
but like like what are we gonna do with this money?
You know, we don't we don't want to touch this money.
We want to do something tangible, right, And so UM
we started with this Amazon registry and he approached the
mayor of Fortly, New Jersey UM for a warehouse. He
(12:29):
got this warehouse. Then he got you know, the mayor
of Sea Caucus and the mayor of Vege Water and
then ultimately just started right and so literally we had
a conversation on Thursday. On Friday, we started an Instagram account.
On Saturday, he got the warehouse, and on Sunday already
(12:50):
we we we posted on Saturday. On Sunday, the Amazon
trucks started rolling in, the volunteers started showing up and
by Monday they were already hundreds of people volunteering. We
had already day three, we had we had five Amazon
full Amazon trucks of of aid, of like humanitarian aid
(13:14):
coming in like it is wild. And if you go
at Barano with seven on Instagram, like you know, we're
documenting everything, the show and everything. Obviously, transparency is key
because I want people to see because it's spearheaded by
my father and it's supported by my brother and I.
But ultimately grew into a community, you know, volunteers that
(13:37):
have resources beyond just like money. You know a lot
of folks you don't have money, they and they have
full time jobs and no one's getting paid for me. UM.
But we have a young woman that is an accountant
by profession that came here and started helping out with
the counting and making sure all the boxes are labeled.
(13:57):
We have another and in the meantime, you got the warehouse.
He got UM trucks that can carry this to to
a cargo plane. He figured out he found a cargo
plane that could fly it out to Ukraine. UM on
the Ukrainian side. Uh, my brother helped coordinate people to
(14:21):
receive this, say right, because it's important that, like you know,
we were excited and we're helping where you know, where
is it going and is it getting there. We were
able to find people that are just as you know,
coordinated as us, I guess on our end to also
have a warehouse and are able to receive this stuff.
(14:41):
And actually three days our first shipment showed up. It
was through air. It was afraid Um that arrived and
already unloaded, and and we have stickers on every box,
we have descriptions like it turned into a full scale
like operation tomorrow. Just to kind of give you some perspective,
(15:03):
We've we've packaged over two hundred and ten thousand pounds
literally last week. You were like, so that's a big
jump over two hundred thousand pounds. We've shipped out a
hundred and sixty thousand. I'd say about sixty thousand went
(15:25):
by air and a hundred thousand is going by by ship.
That's gonna take like two to three weeks. It's not
immediate kind of help, but like medical supplies and you know,
immediate like civilian soldier needs, like you know, people like
I said, it's not a video game, like this guy's
(15:47):
in the trenches, freezing their bottle. You know, did they
get wet in the snow And now they're their thermals
are wet. They're getting the you know flu like they're
getting sick. They're getting you know, so like cats, thermal's uh, flashlights,
battery tacks, you know. Uh so so yeah, I mean
(16:13):
it just again, it became so much more than we
ever imagined. And now we have two warehouses where you know,
companies are donating their pallets. Paletts are these kind of
wooden things that you you stagg the boxes on that
you've didn't wrap up and uh send overseas or put
on you know, put load up in the container. And
(16:34):
you know tomorrow we and and and this has kind
of now picked up steam and gotten some eyebols, you
know from not just media but also some government officials.
You know, I want to give a huge shout out
to Mark Suckledge, the mayor of four Lead, because he's
here packing things every day. The fire department, the police department,
(16:57):
volunteering in their free time. And uh and uh it's
um you know, now the governor, we have the Governor's
attention of New Jersey. We have the senator, Senator Booker's attention.
Uh and so yeah, you know, they can alleviate a
lot of the costs from you know, because now back
(17:18):
to the cost. You know, the volunteers are helping with everything,
but then actually getting the you know, getting it on
the boat or getting it on the plane, ideally on
a plane uh two to get there faster is it
costs a lot of money. And that money is you know,
that's why we started go funding page, and of those
(17:40):
of money that that is collected through that fund is
going to pay for all of this incredible donation, uh
to to get to the folks in Ukraine. So listen,
I'm not Mila Kunians or Ashton Ashton Kutcher. You know,
I can't raise thirty million in three weeks. But you're
doing pretty I'm good. I would say we're doing our best.
(18:03):
And uh, you know it's kind of we're you know,
the Ukrainian people in Ukraine and and and just beyond
Ukraine kind of where the world is mobilized and against
uh an evil situation in many different ways. Yeah. Well,
(18:36):
I think that for those of you listening that have
been feeling a certain way towards this and want to
help and haven't had uh, you know, maybe you don't
have the information to know what to do or where
to go or what's reliable and legit. Um, go to
VAL's Instagram and go to their page. How do you say,
because I want to budget pan Nova? What what? Well?
(18:58):
In Russian it's you, that's the thing in Russian, And
now I gotta say, you know, um in in the
way we would say it would be but right, but yeah,
but you know, we don't roll our rs in English,
so it's you know, it's been pronounced Baranova, Baronova, you know, so,
(19:21):
but I don't know what seven and yeah, okay, we'll
check it out. If you guys want to help out,
please we encourage you too, and vow thank you so
much for coming on. I obviously love speaking with you.
But this is so important and it's so relative to
what's going on right now obviously, so I'm very glad
that we could have somebody who's educated, who has a
(19:42):
personal connection to it and that's doing the work and
really making a big impact come on the podcast and
talk about it. Thank you, Thank you so much. Thank
you for showing the interest. You know, it starts with that,
and then you know, kind of blossoms into more than that.
But yeah, I just want to encourage young people to
(20:04):
understand that this isn't just about Ukraine. This is just
it's about your future, you know, collectively. Uh. And if
we don't do something about this particular situation here, that
we're setting a precedent for it too being done elsewhere
as well. And I just don't want that type of
future for myself. I want that type of future for
(20:27):
my kids. Uh. And uh yeah, when whenever you hear geopolitics,
it's not you know, it's not that simple, and it's
I promise you it's you know, in some regard. Yes,
that is a there's a fancy words for you know,
there are many different complex topics. I promised you this
is very simple. It's very simple. People are dying, you know,
(20:51):
like hospitals are being bombed, and kids are left fatherless
and motherless and and sometimes you know, mostly and most
of the time homeless. So um, you know, we could
we could unpack all of those complex conversations afterwards. Uh.
And and this is not about politics, right, I wanted
(21:13):
this conversation to clearly be not about politics and more
about humanity, you know. So yeah, and I want to
say thank you. I want to say thank you too.
Like I said, all the people that rally behind the
cause that have nothing to do with train or Russia
or Eastern Europe or any of this, you know, it's
(21:35):
it's really motivating for me. Like I'm gonna say, it's
like I've always been kind of leaning towards helping people
in need. But man, after this, the way people rallied
for for something, you know, the way people responded to
me needing something. Man, I will ride for people all day,
(21:55):
even if I don't really mess with that topic matter,
I would show up. There's a march, I will show up.
And in general, just quick, you know, quick two cents
about this country, like this is a great example for
the reality that can exist here. If we're not more
empathetic to each other, if we're not more patient with
one another, if we stop, you know, looking at each
(22:18):
other as humans and continue to just see each other
through the lens of the internet, and how we're portrayed
by people that have nothing to do with us, you
need to get out. We need to see each other,
and we need to connect with one another, and we
need to even if we disagree with each other. We
need to respect one another and support one another because
you know, push comes to shove and then it's it
(22:40):
becomes it spirals out really quickly. So you know, let's
support each other's protests and civil discourses and the ability
to stand up for what we believe is right. And
even if you you know, are not impacted by that cause,
like you know, just show up to that protest and
(23:01):
just just be there, Just be there, make people feel
like you're they're being hurt, you know, because that's really important. Yeah,
for sure, thank you, thank you, thank you for coming
on
This is Conversations with Olivia Jade and I Heart Radio Podcast. Guys,
welcome back to the podcast. This is episode two, or
I guess you could say part two with Val and
we're going to jump right into it and talk all
things Ukraine like we did last week. You kind of
(00:24):
touched on Max was in Ukraine when all of this happened. Um, yeah,
what was that like when the invasion first happened, like
for him? And um, you guys, Yeah, my brother was
in the Key of which is the capital, and he
was out there filming The World of Dance. He was
(00:44):
on the on the judging panel, was one of the judges,
and and uh, you know, I kept checking in because
here the news was reporting there were people, you know,
they're they're mobilizing an army around the border and hundred
nine Russian soldiers around the border, and and like it
(01:05):
was boiling, the pot was boiling. And and you know
the problem now is we're either a so distracted, uh
be maybe lost overwhelmed and see potentially lost a little
faith in the in the news. And so you know,
it's kind of like the boy who Cried Wolf. I'm
(01:27):
not sure, you know, I couldn't tell that there just
exaggerating for the sake of another headline. This was like
really happening. So I try to keep calm until, you know,
until the situation. Yeah, because at this point, right like
the U S News you're saying, was reporting that this
is all going down in Ukraine. But when you're talking
(01:49):
to Max, he's like, everything's fine over here. Yeah, yeah,
he was saying that. He was saying that, you know,
the people are optimistic, and they're just saying that. Listen,
it's you know there, they're on the east side of
the country, northeast, and you know, it's there's no way
and it's not gonna you know, it's older or whatever.
(02:12):
It's just kind of posturing, if you will. And you know,
a hundred ninety thousand soldiers around the borders, not that
it doesn't sound like posturing, but they were optimistic. And
I think again it's Ukrainians, you know, two thousand and fourteen,
just to get back to little history, Russia came in
and took an entire Crimean peninsula which was part of Ukraine,
(02:35):
just took it, just took it. You know, it's like
America going in and just taking Montreal and Quebec. The
entire thing, you know, from Canada and if you could
imagine Ukraine in two thousand fourteen, we're just not you know,
militarily equipped to defend itself. And it was such a
(02:55):
shock because it was unprovoked and it was just like
the military just rolled in and took the land and
claimed it as theirs. I mean, it's my bothering. The
point is that at that point the country was like, listen,
that's that's a problem, and we need to you know,
we need we need to up our military game because
you know, no one's gonna come and rescue us. So
(03:18):
from two thousand and fourteen country and it's people have
really you know, started training, they started preparing, and mentally
they were ready to like do this, you know, and
I think this was, yes, an unprovoked invasion and completely
more than they ever thought it was going to become.
(03:41):
But they, you know, the way my brother kind of
put it as like a lot of these guys they
were they were ready. They were like, Okay, let's do this.
You know, it's like when you get bullied in school
every day for you know that after one after the
day after day after day, he takes this and then
he takes you this, and he takes a lunch money
(04:02):
and takes a lunch, and then at some point he
just you know, picks you up and and it's ready
to fight. You know. At some point you're just like,
you know what, let's I've been waiting for this. Let's
let's just do this, so that let's just do this,
you know. And so I think a lot of a
lot of the country felt like that. And then but obviously,
(04:23):
you know, it creates a lot of havoc and uncertainty.
And anyway back to my brother, the point is that
he was on a production and they were telling him that,
you know, don't worry, it's gonna be fine. And and
literally I spoke to him on Wednesday and he was like, bro,
I'm like, dude, are you watching the news. It's like crazy, right,
(04:43):
And he's like, I'm fine, I don't worry about it.
That's in America. They're reporting this in America. Don't don't trip.
I'm good. And then I went to live. I'm like cool,
you know, I take his word like cool. Yeah, I'm
like cool. And then like literally at four in the
morning and calls me, because you know, the time difference,
(05:04):
I think it was like, yeah, four in the morning
and on a Thursday, and I was February four when
they started in waiting and the rock kids started falling,
you know, and people started scrambling and it became really tense,
and he called me and I've never seen my brother
really be that. That shook, like, you know, my my
(05:27):
brothers is a tough dude. And he was like he
had tears in his eyes. I mean, he was really scared.
And I know, the way I described this emotion was
like it was it was fear because he was like,
you know, he just wanted to get home. It was
regret because he was like I and then I I
(05:48):
messed up. You know, he used a different word, but um,
you know I really really messed up, Like I should
have I should have left, I should have left a
little sooner. I don't know what to do. And then
it was like so fear, regret, and then it was sadness.
You know, he was just sad because as he was
trying and you know, kind of calling me. And then
(06:11):
we started scrambling for resources to get him out because
by that time, the US embassy and consulate were empty, right,
so by that time we've already extracted all the American
citizens for the most part, government officials. So it's not
like he could go to the U. S. Embassy and
show his passport and be like protecting, because that's what
happens around the world, So cherish your American passport, everybody
(06:32):
that's not American citizen. Um, we started scrambling to kind
of get him out, and as that, you know, it's happening,
the reality that all of his friends don't have that
same luxury, you know, the people that now he built
a relationship with, and he's looking at his manager out there,
he's looking at his you know, post buddy, and you
(06:55):
know they are he sees fear in their lives, in
their eyes, like where they gonna do with their family,
and and now, you know, for the right reasons, he
stops being the concerned the priority of production, even though
they you know, they helped them out. Obviously they did
their best, but like I said, all the structure collapses immediately,
(07:18):
and you just it becomes chaotic survival. You know, you're
just thinking about your loved ones and your immediate kind
of safety. So yeah, so he uh, you know, I'm
not going to get into how we were able to
get him into more or less safety. But he you know,
he was he was at the hotel um kind of
(07:42):
in the center, but you know, away from a lot
of the the real big fighting. Uh still sirens still,
you know, bomb shelter definitely, you know, bombs being dropped.
But like I said, at least and it was crazy
you faced on me. Across the street was this police
(08:02):
department and there was literally just lines and lines and
lines all day long around the block of civilian civilians
just coming up and picking up arms, regular people just
you know, just ready to fight, just ready to fight.
(08:35):
So obviously Max is in Poland now he's kind of
helping with like sheltering and helping people that are coming
from Ukraine like find a spot, right, yes, so he
kind of like that. That's the thing is like there's
a lot of people that want to help, and there's
like where do you start? Where do you begin? Like
how do I do this? Just donate to the Red
(08:56):
Red Cross or like where is that going to go?
And I was gonna, you know, um, but in real
time he was literally taking his own funds and like
putting people up like here comes you know, if you
if you get to the border, like I'll, I'll take
care of the housing for a month so you could
(09:16):
get your bearings, and like he was doing that. You know,
one family at a time, one person at a time. Um,
you do what you can, you know. And for us, obviously,
the dance community has a lot of our friends and
a lot of our friendships, and so it is heavily
(09:37):
Ukrainian dancers that we kind of gravitated to helping in
that instance, uh, get out of the country and as
far as you know, some some accommodations you know, help them,
help them, helping them out logistically, but also a little
bit financially. But yeah, now he's in Ukraine doing that
(09:57):
and um, making sure. So in the meantime in America,
My my father, you know, he grew up in that
country way more than than I did. You know, he
grew up in the Ukraine. He was born there, and
he was just angry, restless and really just angry. He
was angry that this is just happening. And he didn't
(10:20):
want to just donate some of his money so it's
not he like, really he's about that life. So he
was like, well, you gotta do this for me, you
gotta you know, think of a name. Uh, let's you know,
help me set up an account. I'm gonna need you
to you know, promote it and then I'll take care
of everything else. I'm like, Dad, what are you doing?
Like he wants to start from scratch. He wants to
(10:42):
create his own thing, not piggyback off somebody else that's
starting some um like aid Foundation for Ukraine. He's yeah,
he's he want I want to start a humanitarian and
don't want to start a charity. And we're gonna do
this and this is what I want to do. And
I'm like that, Like, we have a business to run.
There's a lot of ways we can help that doesn't
(11:03):
entail us starting you know, an entire infrastructure of support,
Like you have no resources of how to ship things out.
We were not in the import export game, Like we
don't know this stuff. Uh. And he didn't want to
hear it. And it's crazy, like his relentless list is wild.
And he was like, and this was eighteen days ago literally, uh.
(11:26):
And we started Verona. I came up with that name
because that's the address of where he grew up in
the Ukraine and where then my brother was born. And
I was born uh and UH it's a Ukrainian humanitarian
aid and it's basically and now we're officially recognized the
(11:47):
nonprofit organization. And basically we we started with an Amazon
registry because you know, obviously we have reached beyond the
tri state area of Jersey, New York, Connecticut. UH, and
we wanted our fans to kind of help UM start
to go fund me and and and collect money. It
(12:07):
felt also kind of a little bit not too much,
but like like what are we gonna do with this money?
You know, we don't we don't want to touch this money.
We want to do something tangible, right, And so UM
we started with this Amazon registry and he approached the
mayor of Fortly, New Jersey UM for a warehouse. He
(12:29):
got this warehouse. Then he got you know, the mayor
of Sea Caucus and the mayor of Vege Water and
then ultimately just started right and so literally we had
a conversation on Thursday. On Friday, we started an Instagram account.
On Saturday, he got the warehouse, and on Sunday already
(12:50):
we we we posted on Saturday. On Sunday, the Amazon
trucks started rolling in, the volunteers started showing up and
by Monday they were already hundreds of people volunteering. We
had already day three, we had we had five Amazon
full Amazon trucks of of aid, of like humanitarian aid
(13:14):
coming in like it is wild. And if you go
at Barano with seven on Instagram, like you know, we're
documenting everything, the show and everything. Obviously, transparency is key
because I want people to see because it's spearheaded by
my father and it's supported by my brother and I.
But ultimately grew into a community, you know, volunteers that
(13:37):
have resources beyond just like money. You know a lot
of folks you don't have money, they and they have
full time jobs and no one's getting paid for me. UM.
But we have a young woman that is an accountant
by profession that came here and started helping out with
the counting and making sure all the boxes are labeled.
(13:57):
We have another and in the meantime, you got the warehouse.
He got UM trucks that can carry this to to
a cargo plane. He figured out he found a cargo
plane that could fly it out to Ukraine. UM on
the Ukrainian side. Uh, my brother helped coordinate people to
(14:21):
receive this, say right, because it's important that, like you know,
we were excited and we're helping where you know, where
is it going and is it getting there. We were
able to find people that are just as you know,
coordinated as us, I guess on our end to also
have a warehouse and are able to receive this stuff.
(14:41):
And actually three days our first shipment showed up. It
was through air. It was afraid Um that arrived and
already unloaded, and and we have stickers on every box,
we have descriptions like it turned into a full scale
like operation tomorrow. Just to kind of give you some perspective,
(15:03):
We've we've packaged over two hundred and ten thousand pounds
literally last week. You were like, so that's a big
jump over two hundred thousand pounds. We've shipped out a
hundred and sixty thousand. I'd say about sixty thousand went
(15:25):
by air and a hundred thousand is going by by ship.
That's gonna take like two to three weeks. It's not
immediate kind of help, but like medical supplies and you know,
immediate like civilian soldier needs, like you know, people like
I said, it's not a video game, like this guy's
(15:47):
in the trenches, freezing their bottle. You know, did they
get wet in the snow And now they're their thermals
are wet. They're getting the you know flu like they're
getting sick. They're getting you know, so like cats, thermal's uh, flashlights,
battery tacks, you know. Uh so so yeah, I mean
(16:13):
it just again, it became so much more than we
ever imagined. And now we have two warehouses where you know,
companies are donating their pallets. Paletts are these kind of
wooden things that you you stagg the boxes on that
you've didn't wrap up and uh send overseas or put
on you know, put load up in the container. And
(16:34):
you know tomorrow we and and and this has kind
of now picked up steam and gotten some eyebols, you
know from not just media but also some government officials.
You know, I want to give a huge shout out
to Mark Suckledge, the mayor of four Lead, because he's
here packing things every day. The fire department, the police department,
(16:57):
volunteering in their free time. And uh and uh it's
um you know, now the governor, we have the Governor's
attention of New Jersey. We have the senator, Senator Booker's attention.
Uh and so yeah, you know, they can alleviate a
lot of the costs from you know, because now back
(17:18):
to the cost. You know, the volunteers are helping with everything,
but then actually getting the you know, getting it on
the boat or getting it on the plane, ideally on
a plane uh two to get there faster is it
costs a lot of money. And that money is you know,
that's why we started go funding page, and of those
(17:40):
of money that that is collected through that fund is
going to pay for all of this incredible donation, uh
to to get to the folks in Ukraine. So listen,
I'm not Mila Kunians or Ashton Ashton Kutcher. You know,
I can't raise thirty million in three weeks. But you're
doing pretty I'm good. I would say we're doing our best.
(18:03):
And uh, you know it's kind of we're you know,
the Ukrainian people in Ukraine and and and just beyond
Ukraine kind of where the world is mobilized and against
uh an evil situation in many different ways. Yeah. Well,
(18:36):
I think that for those of you listening that have
been feeling a certain way towards this and want to
help and haven't had uh, you know, maybe you don't
have the information to know what to do or where
to go or what's reliable and legit. Um, go to
VAL's Instagram and go to their page. How do you say,
because I want to budget pan Nova? What what? Well?
(18:58):
In Russian it's you, that's the thing in Russian, And
now I gotta say, you know, um in in the
way we would say it would be but right, but yeah,
but you know, we don't roll our rs in English,
so it's you know, it's been pronounced Baranova, Baronova, you know, so,
(19:21):
but I don't know what seven and yeah, okay, we'll
check it out. If you guys want to help out,
please we encourage you too, and vow thank you so
much for coming on. I obviously love speaking with you.
But this is so important and it's so relative to
what's going on right now obviously, so I'm very glad
that we could have somebody who's educated, who has a
(19:42):
personal connection to it and that's doing the work and
really making a big impact come on the podcast and
talk about it. Thank you, Thank you so much. Thank
you for showing the interest. You know, it starts with that,
and then you know, kind of blossoms into more than that.
But yeah, I just want to encourage young people to
(20:04):
understand that this isn't just about Ukraine. This is just
it's about your future, you know, collectively. Uh. And if
we don't do something about this particular situation here, that
we're setting a precedent for it too being done elsewhere
as well. And I just don't want that type of
future for myself. I want that type of future for
(20:27):
my kids. Uh. And uh yeah, when whenever you hear geopolitics,
it's not you know, it's not that simple, and it's
I promise you it's you know, in some regard. Yes,
that is a there's a fancy words for you know,
there are many different complex topics. I promised you this
is very simple. It's very simple. People are dying, you know,
(20:51):
like hospitals are being bombed, and kids are left fatherless
and motherless and and sometimes you know, mostly and most
of the time homeless. So um, you know, we could
we could unpack all of those complex conversations afterwards. Uh.
And and this is not about politics, right, I wanted
(21:13):
this conversation to clearly be not about politics and more
about humanity, you know. So yeah, and I want to
say thank you. I want to say thank you too.
Like I said, all the people that rally behind the
cause that have nothing to do with train or Russia
or Eastern Europe or any of this, you know, it's
(21:35):
it's really motivating for me. Like I'm gonna say, it's
like I've always been kind of leaning towards helping people
in need. But man, after this, the way people rallied
for for something, you know, the way people responded to
me needing something. Man, I will ride for people all day,
(21:55):
even if I don't really mess with that topic matter,
I would show up. There's a march, I will show up.
And in general, just quick, you know, quick two cents
about this country, like this is a great example for
the reality that can exist here. If we're not more
empathetic to each other, if we're not more patient with
one another, if we stop, you know, looking at each
(22:18):
other as humans and continue to just see each other
through the lens of the internet, and how we're portrayed
by people that have nothing to do with us, you
need to get out. We need to see each other,
and we need to connect with one another, and we
need to even if we disagree with each other. We
need to respect one another and support one another because
you know, push comes to shove and then it's it
(22:40):
becomes it spirals out really quickly. So you know, let's
support each other's protests and civil discourses and the ability
to stand up for what we believe is right. And
even if you you know, are not impacted by that cause,
like you know, just show up to that protest and
(23:01):
just just be there, Just be there, make people feel
like you're they're being hurt, you know, because that's really important. Yeah,
for sure, thank you, thank you, thank you for coming
on
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com