From Ukraine to Hamilton Park, one Ukrainian refugee brings the love of gardening and beekeeping

A collection of elementary and middle school students were also on hand Monday morning to deliver approximately $700 in donations to Condon for refugee efforts.

By Jake Maher
The Jersey Journal
May 13, 2022

Excerpt:

On a sunny Monday morning this week, Ihor Kondyra was working in the Hamilton Park Montessori School’s rooftop garden, looking perfectly at ease trimming dead stems from a grape vine to make it ready to grow along a trellis.

“My dear friend,” he said with a gesture to the planters, pots, and beekeeping equipment constituting the garden, “this is my soul.”

A retired director of a regional unemployment agency, a multi-instrumentalist with a particular interest in the flute, a holder of post-secondary degrees in both music and economics, and most recently a refugee from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kondyra at age 65 is entering a new phase in life as the Hamilton Park Montessori School’s volunteer gardener and beekeeper.

The school accepted his middle school-aged daughters when the family fled Ternopil, Ukraine for Jersey City. His stepdaughter, Ukrainian Jersey City co-founder and informal coordinator of Jersey City refugee resettlement Oksana Condon, also has a son who attends the school.

Read the complete article here.