“06880” Podcast: Jen Tooker, Foti Koskinas And Ukraine

A month after Jen Tooker and Foti Koskinas visited Lyman, Ukraine, the sights, sounds and smells of our sister city remain vivid.

Westport’s 1st selectwoman and police chief’s journey to the Donetsk region — the first trip by Americans to the eastern part of the war-torn nation — was an enormous morale-booster, for regional officials as well as other citizens.

Last week, Tooker and Koskinas recorded a special “06880” podcast at the Westport Library.

They grew emotional as they described the men and women of Lyman wearing their best clothes, thanking representatives of the American town that cared. “You gave me bread!” one woman said.

One purpose of the trip — paid for entirely by private funds — was to ensure that the $252,000 raised by Westporters through Ukraine Aid International is actually helping.

It is. The trash trucks we purchased are in constant use. Apartment blocks have been rebuilt. Communications equipment enables the police force to function.

But Tooker and Koskinas were not prepared for so much else on the journey: the app that warns of incoming missiles. The smell of burning flesh, still lingering around the hundreds of abandoned tanks.

Also unexpected: the one school still open, where despite no electricity or running water, their Lyman hosts offered a meal. And where the Westporters delivered over 200 cards and letters, created by Bedford Middle and Kings Highway Elementary School students.

Last month, Tooker and Koskinas solidified Westport’s bonds with our sister city. Click below to hear what that relationship means now — and in the future.