Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February, a Ukrainian mother and her two sons have found refuge in Apopka with a host family and are establishing normalcy in a difficult situation through enrollment in school and a local tennis program.
On Friday, March 11, the Apopka community welcomed mother Yulia Gerbut and her sons Max, 14, and Nikita, 12, at the tennis courts of the Northwest Recreation Complex, where the boys just started their tennis lessons with Galaxy Tennis, thus resuming a hobby they pursued back in their home country. The family is originally from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Yulia Gerbut’s husband Max, who is working in California and had left Ukraine in November 2021, arranged for his family’s flight to the United States. Because her husband is staying in a hotel, his family couldn’t stay with him, Yulia Gerbut said.
“I just want to say how grateful we are and how safe and calm we feel here,” she said, addressing a crowd at the tennis courts during a press conference. “I’m really, really, really glad to be here. I feel bad for my country, but I’m trying to help somehow from here. What else I want to say is all Ukrainians – you know it for sure – are very, very grateful to the United States, to every American for everything you’ve done, the help that you extended to Ukraine, it’s extremely important, necessary and useful. I know the sanctions to Russia are really painful for every person in the world, but it’s really worth doing. I really believe it will help stop the war. So thank you so much, and thank you for having us.”
Mayor Bryan Nelson noted how for almost 10 years he and his wife Debbie have lived down the street from St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Catholic Church, which is located on Lake McCoy Drive in Apopka. His wife, who often gathers clothes for donating, recently helped collect garments to ship overseas to Ukrainian families.
“We have a real affection for the Ukrainian people,” he said.
“What an amazing group of people,” the mayor later said. “We in Apopka, with our Ukrainian heritage we have here in Apopka, we’re here to try to help any way we can to make this as seamless and uneventful for the two boys and their mother as we can. So, Apopka is here to help. Apopka will always take care of our own, all and we call Ukrainian families our own.”
Tennis Galaxy had launched a giving campaign on www.galaxytennis.com for the Gerbuts to cover the family’s living expenses and tennis scholarships.
“They’ve been here for the last week, and we’re trying to make sure that the very difficult time they’re going through is a little bit easier to try and provide one of the activities they used to participate in when they were at home,” said Peter Fazekas, Tennis Galaxy founder and director of coaching. “Frankly it seems a little bit – almost embarrassing a little bit – to think about the fact that some real heroes on the other side of the ocean are fighting for their freedom and trying to defend their country and their homeland, and we are playing tennis to honor them and help them, but that’s the little thing we can do right here, right now and we are very proud to do so.”
Twenty years ago, Yulia Gerbut was an exchange student who stayed with Apopkan Meegan Yockus back when she lived at Rock Springs Ridge. Yockus now lives at Sweetwater Reserve.
Yulia Gerbut called it “a real achievement” to enroll both of her sons in school soon after they settled in the United States. She said she is also establishing a schedule to provide structure in the family’s life that includes creating house rules with Yockus for the boys to follow.
