Eloise Sloan might be only 6 years old, but she is making a big difference and bringing joy to the people of Ukraine.
The Hillsborough native and current Lebanon resident has been hard at work the last few weeks to help raise money to support Ukrainians during the Russian invasion by creating homemade buttons.
With the help of her mother Amanda, and various friends and family members, Eloise has been selling her homemade buttons around the local area to raise money to support Ukrainian refugees who are currently stationed in Poland.
Over 200 buttons have been sold and Eloise was happy to announce during an exclusive interview with centraljersey.com on March 21 that her fundraiser has raised a total of $595.
All of the funds raised are going to the American School of Warsaw in Poland. The school is currently housing and supporting Ukrainian refugees.
Eloise had the chance to speak to the school’s principal last weekend over Zoom, where she heard about all the “cool” stuff the school was using with her money to help the Ukrainians who are stationed at the school.
“It was really cool to talk to him,” Eloise said. “He said how happy they were of what I was doing and all the things they were doing with the money I raised.”
Food, diapers, baby formula, dog food and many other supplies are being bought by the school through Eloise’s fundraiser, said Amanda Sloan.
This fundraiser came about one night when Eloise overheard her mother and sister, Veronica, talking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Eloise was drawn to the news of the Ukraine-Russian war and wanted to know more about it.
As she learned more and more about the situation, Eloise also started seeing people from the United States and around the world begin making an effort to help out the people in Ukraine.
That motivated Eloise to find a way of her own to help out and contribute to the cause.
She remembered that her family helped her sister with a project recently by using a button maker and thought she could use the device as well to draw pictures for buttons that would show support for Ukraine.
Eloise went right to work to create all different types of buttons, some featuring drawings of animals and dinosaurs, while others had a drawing of an ice cream cone or rainbow on them.
In addition to the drawing, Eloise has two small stickers of the Ukrainian flag at the bottom on each button with the #buttonsoflove and xoxo Eloise.
Some buttons also had its drawing be a heart with the Ukrainian colors of blue and yellow colored inside them.
Helping the Sloan family sell the buttons was good friend and Hillsborough resident Kari LaSpisa, who owns the Basilico Italian Restaurant in Raritan.
LaSpisa put the buttons on display in the restaurant for customers to purchase and also promoted the cause across the restaurant’s social media platforms.
Each button is $1; however, Eloise said a lot of people were very generous when purchasing the buttons and would donate more money for the cause.
More buttons are on the way as the Sloan family plans to continue the fundraiser for the foreseeable future to help more Ukrainian families in need during this tough time.
“I want them to feel happy,” said Eloise. “Thank you to everyone for helping.”
Any inquires about purchasing a button can go to Amanda Sloan through email at [email protected]. People can also donate money to the fundraiser being operated by the American School of Warsaw by visiting https://go.rallyup.com/aswforukraine/Campaign/Details