Embraced By The Community, Hampton Bays Yoga Teacher Raises Money For Family Back In Ukraine

When she looks out her shop’s picture window and across East Main Street, Dariia Protsiuk sees the blue and yellow flag of her native country billowing alongside the Stars and Stripes on the pole at Riverhead Town Hall, and she feels supported. When she sees the students arriving for her Friday night benefit yoga classes at The Yoga House on the Bay in Hampton Bays, the proceeds of which will help her fellow countrymen in war-torn Ukraine, she feels embraced by her adopted community.

A graphic artist, proprietor of Darinka’s Signs and yoga instructor, Protsiuk worries about her parents, brother and grandmother — all in Ukraine in her hometown of Rivne. “It’s just really scary,” she said. “It’s the genocide of a whole nation.”

She noted that her grandmother is 88 years old and can’t walk or talk, after a stroke. Protsiuk’s parents can’t move her, as they fear she might die on the road. “When the sirens, the alarms are on, when you need to go to the shelter, they stay with her,” Protsiuk said. “They can’t leave her. It’s horrible.” Her parents are retired and in their 60s.

Just 2 years old, her nephew cried for three days in reaction to the chaos and cacophony in Rivne, she said. A western city, Rivne is located near Poland and Belarus and has been the target of Russian missiles and bombs. Her sister-in-law and nephew soon fled to Poland with just a backpack, while her brother stayed behind.

“He couldn’t leave. Nobody can leave, if you’re a man in the country. Any man 18 to 60-years old needs to stay,” Protsiuk explained.

The government asked people to stay and keep the economy going rather than run away. “Everyone I know, they volunteer all the time,” she said, explaining how her friends and family are getting used to living in war and reaching out to refugees who have fled other parts of the country and arrive with “nothing.” Her mother is helping to build huge camouflage nets to send to parts of Ukraine that need them the most. “It’s not possible to be there without doing anything,” Protsiuk said.

Her brother travels hundreds of miles in his job, striving to earn money to send his wife and son to safety. As he drives for his job, she said, he can’t stop the car and must speed to his destinations.

“The situation is really scary,” she said. “They don’t tell me the full picture. I’m talking with them every day, but they can’t talk about it.” There’s a fear that sharing specific information might endanger them.

“They just bombed the airport and the TV station in my hometown,” Protsiuk reported during a March 24 interview. On March 17, Global News posted a video of Oleksandr Tretyak, the mayor of Rivne, escaping to a bomb shelter during a call with the news organization, then continuing the conversation.

Nights can be sleepless for the young woman, with news of new predation coming through. “When they bombed the airport,” Protsiuk recalled, “I got a phone call from my friend in LA at night. I called my friends there and they said, what can we do? It’s just scary.”

She has so far been able to stay in contact with family and friends overseas, which is both a blessing and a curse. And this week received the wonderful news that her sister-in–law and nephew will be allowed to come to the United States.

Still, Protsiuk continues to worry and grieve for her home country. In some cities, she said, people melt snow for water. “They have nothing, no food, and they can’t leave,” she said.

Protsiuk first came to this country as a student. Procuring a job at Six Flags in Missouri for the summer, she worked alongside students from all over the world at the amusement park. “It was fun,” she recalled. “I was only 18.” With her sister, Zoia, she traveled the country, making friends along the way. Back home, she completed her education at the Lviv National Academy of Art.

Eight years ago, the travel was enjoyable, but leaving Ukraine served a purpose. “I was running from the war. People didn’t even call it war then.” She moved to Poland, then New York, while Zoia stayed in Poland.

About four years ago, she settled on Long Island.

“When I moved here, I was looking for friends and I found this beautiful studio and I started to go there,” she said. “I needed something in my life to support my clear thinking.”

When studio owner Kara Billingham said she was going to begin instructor training “I jumped into it,” Protsiuk related. The COVID shutdown came, and she studied online. When she finished her studies, Protsiuk offered private instruction and was happy to join the staff when the studio reopened.

Talking to her teacher about what was happening in Ukraine, the idea of hosting benefit classes arose. “She said I will understand if you want to do it for donations, and I said this is the best idea.” The funds go to the organization #HelpUA, which purchases goods in Poland and ships them directly to Ukrainian cities in need. #HelpUA is a community of Ukrainian volunteers who live in the United States and work to help those in Ukraine, while other organizations are helping refugees. Speaking of her sister-in-law, Protsiuk said, “She just took a backpack. … You take all the money you have, all the documents you have in the house, and you just run.”

At the yoga studio, they have seen students who are returning for class, as well as newcomers arriving for the express purpose of making the donation. “People are coming just to support this. They really want to help,” Billingham said. “They come and see Dariia and hear her story, and they’re moved by it.”

The support, Billingham said, means so much to her friend and fellow teacher.

“It’s been a wonderful surprise, how people have reached out to me,” Protsiuk said. Considering efforts that have run the gamut from a Scouting troop’s bake sale to a star-studded concert in Great Britain, she observed, “The whole world is gathered around Ukraine.”

“Dariia is the kind of person who was smiling all the time,” Billingham said. “The smile left her face” when war broke out. The benefit classes and the caring community response, she said, brought it back.

Classes are held each Friday evening at 6 p.m. at The Yoga House – On the Bay on Tepee Street in Hampton Bays.