On Saturday, February 27th, at 8:00 P.M., Huntingdon’s Grove Hall will host a benefit concert with all monies raised going towards funding Chernobyl survivor Alla Karytka’s education.
The 28-year-old has been travelling to Elgin every summer since the age of ten after surviving the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Currently enrolled as an international student in an industrial drafting program in Montreal, Karytka has opted to continue her education in Canada, as it isn’t an option available to her in her current home of Belarus. To help cover her fees, her sponsor, Pat Walsh, is organizing a blowout benefit concert in the hopes of helping Karytka reach her goals. Headlining for the event will be Montreal blues group The Stephen Barry Band. The group, which has been playing together for 40 years, will be joined by a bevy of beloved local musicians including John Speed, Daniel McKell and Christopher Pennington.
Alla’s history is a tragic one. 30 years ago come April, reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant experienced a disastrous surge in power that led to multiple explosions at the core of the Ukrainian plant, releasing a radioactive plume into the atmosphere. This was followed by a fire that burned for days, increasing the emission of radioactive particles. As a result, a nuclear cloud formed, settling over neighbouring Belarus, affecting close to 800,000 children, including Karytka. As a respite from the daily exposure that still lingers in Belarus today, Karytka and several other children spent their summers in the Chateauguay Valley in the late nineties and early 2000s. While Karytka survived, she spent the first five years of her life in and out of hospitals, fighting respiratory problems that were a result of the radiation. When she first arrived in Quebec, she had lost much of her hair to radiation poisoning—it did not grow back until she was 16 years old.
“With a Canadian education, Alla will have a chance at a better life,” says event organizer Walsh, who met Karytka in 1997 via the Canadian Relief Fund for Chernobyl Victims in Belarus. Considering Karytka to be part of her family, Walsh is proud of Alla’s decision to further her education in Canada, which is why she has opted to put together this fundraiser. She is reaching out to the community for support, as she is unable to cover the cost of tuition alone.
Donations to Alla’s education fund can be made directly online at: www.gofundme.com/ rptkv8g. For more information about the benefit concert, visit www.grovehall.ca
Thank you to Sarah Rennie for her contribution to this article.
