Yeah, on a friday afternoon in Chicago hundreds o
catholic school students are singing for Ukraine's
glory. The Children's passionat display of support is
partly to please their guests, veterans of the
Ukrainian armed forces. But that's not all. Most
students here in the heart of Chicago's Ukrainian
village have Ukrainian heritage themselves, 72 of them
are war refugees. The school has been welcoming them
with open arms after Russia invaded Ukraine in febru
before the invasion. 155 Childr from pre K to eighth
grade attended ST Nicholas Cathedral School With the
new refugees. There are now 227 students, a 46%
increase and tomorrow continue to arrive on a near
daily basis. More Ukrainian people's 10 year old. Peter
is one of the refugees. A bilingual classmate
translate my questions. Do you feel a little bit at
home, Peter tells me he recently fled Ukraine via
Poland Germany, Italy Mexico and finally Chicago to
join his grandparents here. America. I will do you
really love America because America help. So this is
the toy room leading the herculean task to welcome all
the new students in school Principal Anna Cirelli.
start with the backpack lunchbo and we get them their
school supplies. When a new family arrives. This room
full of donations is one of their first stops. It's
going to just give the student a little bit of
happiness and try to make this their new home for
however long no one really knows right their unifor
are all here. The school has received so many donations.
They also turned this backstage into a giant closet.
We're not doing any play performances right now. So now
we have the clothing back here and toiletries. This has
all been provided by the community, wow. And the moms
that come, they come back and they help volunteer. Sara
lee says most refugee kids are coming with their
mothers leaving their fighting fathers behind. Some
even come alone to join a distant relative already in
the U.S. Why do you feel it is your responsibility
keep welcoming all these Children from Ukraine Can you
imagine saying no Like as a human, serially says there
might be a day when she does have to say no, she's
thinking about training nearby schools on what it takes
to welcome refugees. But just thinking about it visibly
upset her. I don't get emotional about this stuff but
that will be a hard time. That would be difficult f
me personally. Mm these are second graders. Can I have
you come over here for just a moment. Is any of you
from Ukraine Wow, that is many of you. It's almost half
the class while the majority of this class has
Ukrainian heritage for our actual refugees, one of them
eight year old Daniel says via his translating buddy
that he already has two best friends come with me.
There are two best friends. Yeah, that's awesome.
class teacher jane. Soder says the new and old students
have heated up right away. They've been wonderful an
accepting and welcoming their new friends and making
sure they feel comfortable and helping translate for me
because I don't speak Ukrainian But most of the class
dies making a challenging year even trickier. The class
also includes Russian students. It's been really hard
on them as well and just kind of reckoning that in
themselves. Am I you know what my country has done or
what, how my classmates might be feeling about me. Sora
says she is beyond proud to be part of the school's
mission to welcome refugees. She says word of what
they're doing here is even reaching the battlefield i
Ukraine. The moms are then communicating that to
fathers who are back home in Ukraine fighting and it
helps them keep going all in All, everyone here
displaced or not seems to be forming a loving and tight
knit community and while the new kids tell us the
school feels like a home away from home, they also miss
their real home people here, nice and kind to us. My
child is so happy to be here, but he misses home. He
misses his father. The grinding war back home visa
issues and 1000 other factors make it hard to know
what's next. But for now for one afternoon singing in
unison, praying and meeting Ukrainian war heroes
provides a much needed moral boost