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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...