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