Some kids look forward to their Sweet 16 birthday with anticipation, but for Olya Scheel, 16 was a scary
benchmark. That’s the cutoff age for a child in a Ukrainian orphanage to be adopted. Fortune
smiled on Scheel, however, who was adopted before turning 16 by a North Idaho family and has since lived in the U.S. for
more than a decade.

She’s not forgotten about her homeland, especially since it’s been under attack from Russia, nor the orphanage where she spent more than half her life.
Now the 26-year-old, who was born with a muscle and joint condition called arthrogryposis, which prevented her
from walking until about six years ago, is giving back.

Scheel is teaming up with Laura Dale, who co-founded the North Idaho-based nonprofit Kya’s Promise while attempting to adopt children from Ukraine. The organization
helps families cover the cost of adopting children with intellectual or physical disabilities.

Scheel and Dale are co-hosting their Ukrainian feast to raise money for another organization, the Ukraine-based An Orphan Smiles, which works with several Ukrainian adoption
facilities focusing on children with special needs.

The local fundraiser is happening this Saturday, April 9, from 6 to 8:30 pm, at the Village Bakery (190 W. Hayden Ave.) in Hayden.
Tickets are $30 per person or $100 for four, and include many of the culinary goodies for which Ukraine is
known, and which Dale has learned to cook.

Try rich borscht soup with pampushky, or pull-apart buns and pork
chops with onion. You’ll also get the Slavic variation of dumplings called varenyky, both the savory potato and
sweet fruit-filled ones, as well as stuffed cabbage rolls. For dessert, treat yourself to syrinky, a kind of rich
pancake of cheese curd and fruit.
Find more information here.

Article Source: Inlander