CWU Business alumna’s capstone project helps save Ukrainian seniors’ lives

In a war as drawn out as the one in Ukraine, the ability to evacuate a building quickly can be the difference between life and death.

This September, a stairlift funded through a Central Washington University Leadership student’s capstone project ended up making that difference, helping to evacuate a nursing home during one of the tragically frequent air raids on Ukraine during its nearly four-year conflict with Russia.

Miriam Svintozelskiy, who graduated in June with her business degree in Leadership and Management, came up with the idea to raise the money for a stairlift after having tea with one of her friends from when she lived in Ukraine. Her friend described how the elderly residents of the House of Mercy home would have to be evacuated from the building on blankets carried by staff during air raids, a dangerously slow process.

“As she explained the situation, I realized that this was what I was going to do for my project,” Svintozelskiy said. “I partnered with a local catering company and a local church, and began selling kielbasa, piroshkis, and other Ukrainian food to help raise the money.”

As a remote student located in Pennsylvania, Svintozelskiy didn’t have a group with whom to complete the project, so she assembled a team of local businesses and began marketing her efforts via social media. The project was so well-received that it ended up raising $3,800, enough to purchase the chairlift in Ukraine and have it installed. Svintozelskiy raised the money by the time she graduated, and the lift was installed over the summer.

In late September, the House of Mercy was hit by an airstrike, causing significant structural damage and leaving its residents without water or heat. However, thanks in part to the presence of the chairlift, every resident managed to make it out before the blast. The home reached out to let Svintozelskiy know that her hard work had paid off.

“It’s a bad outcome, but if it hadn’t been for the stairlift, it could have been a lot worse,” she said. “I wish it had never happened, but now that it has, at least everybody made it out alive.”

As she starts a career helping long term care and nursing home residents receive medications for their chronic conditions across the east coast, Svintozelskiy looks back on the project and its delayed impact with hope that others can identify opportunities to pitch in when they arise, regardless of when the payoff might materialize.

“The person doing the project might not feel the immediate impact, but the people they’re helping will,” she said. “It’s about putting others before your own pride, and helping for helping’s sake.”