Don’t look down.
2022 was a rough year following a few rough years. COVID happened, my died passed unexpectedly while I was six month’s pregnant, and Russia invaded Ukraine, where WLCM’s team was based. A lot of things shifted, chief among them my worldview, and not for the better. I started getting scared.
"It Didn't Go Well"
My five-year-old son is at summer camp on the beach. On the first week, the kids took swim tests to determine if they needed to wear a swim vest in the water. My son came out on the side of... swim vest. The next week, he asked the counselors if he could try again.
We're thinking about growth differently
WLCM was named #50 on the Fast 100, the SF Business Times' list of the fastest growing private companies in SF. The timing of these awards (this and Inc.'s equivalent list, to which we were named in March of this year) is interesting for us, because it's happening as virtually our entire team becomes refugees.
You made this possible
I have been sending a series of emails to those who supported the campaign, to tell them what they’ve made possible. Because some people miss these updates, and also because each story of generosity is proof that we can make a difference in a world that feels largely outside of our control, I am sharing them here, too. This page will be updated ongoing.
The Poison
A thought I've been having lately is that you can make the most nutritious, delicious soup, but add one drop of poison, and everything is ruined. It can take a million hours to build something and two seconds to demolish it. And each of us can do every good thing we can for Ukrainians from here, but it won’t stop the killing. This is deeply unsettling to me.
The Campaign for Ukrainian Families
On Feb 24th, after a sleepless night following Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, I shakily and quickly created a campaign to raise funds to support this team. Below is the content of that campaign and the updates I posted there.
The spirit of the word
Last month, the WLCM team was all together in Lviv, Ukraine. Among other activities, we went to the Craft Beer and Vinyl Festival. I tried not to think too much about how much my dad would have loved that festival, and apparently my team could read my mind, because Lilia and Sergey presented me with a beer there I knew...