The Brainerd Lakes community has done a lot over the past couple of months to show their support for relief efforts in Ukraine, including packing 30,000 meals, offering t-shirts and clay pins to raise awareness, and holding multiple relief-effort fundraisers.

Central Lakes College in Brainerd took it one step further. Former U.S. Department of State official Thomas Hanson gave a presentation at a Rosenmeier Forum recently on the global impact of the war in Ukraine. Hanson presented to truly educate students on the war.

“The refugee toll is growing in Ukraine, two-thirds of Urkainian children have been displaced – two-thirds, this is a country of 44 million,” said Hanson. “The French diplomat Talleyrand in the 17th century famously said once, “It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.” And I think that the Russians have made a serious blunder here. In fact, there are analysts now saying that this arguably is the worst decision of Russian statecraft since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.”

The Lakes area continues to provide support for the relief effort. Most recently, packing 104,000 meals thanks to the Outreach Program in Nisswa.

By — Lakeland News