Starfish Award Winner: Sea La Vie

By Kristin Ely

Helping Ukraine is a cause close to Madeleine Philipp's heart.

Close to the heart

Ukraine may be far across the ocean, but for the owner of Sea La Vie in Virginia Beach, Virginia, when war broke out there, it felt close to home.

Madeleine Philipp grew up in Germany, on the border of Poland. She has several friends from Ukraine and Russia, and students from those countries come to Virginia Beach during summers to work at local businesses through the J-1 visa program.

Philipp immediately wanted to help. In fact, she says, if she were in Germany, she would be at the border aiding refugees.

“We should all want to help in one way or another because if we were ever in this situation, we would want the same, for someone to help us.” — Madeleine Philipp

“I feel like a lot of Germans maybe used the excuse of ‘We didn’t know that was going on’ during WWII and I simply don’t ever want to repeat that,” she says.

Humanitarian efforts

Philipp joined forces with two friends in the area, Diana McAfee, who is Ukrainian, and Darrell Cuenca, who owns a Virginia Beach-based brewery, Deadline Brewing. They made the store and brewery donation drop-off points for collecting items for a humanitarian aid package. Philipp advertised on the store’s social media pages. As an incentive, she offered a 25% discount to everyone who dropped off donations.

“We had many of our regular customers bring in medical supplies, mostly nurses who didn’t even take advantage of the discount, so that is amazing,” says Philipp.

Sea La Vie’s humanitarian effort to collect donated medical supplies is making a global impact and inspiring others.

Shop employee Minerva Rew arranged for a local hospital, Sentara Healthcare, to supply two semi-trucks full of medical supplies. It exceeded what the Ukraine delivery could handle so one truck went to a local charity bound for Haiti. “I love how literally one person wanting to help can achieve so much,” Philipp says.

Near and far

Locally, Philipp partnered with Tidewater Ukrainian School to organize charity events. The school works with a Ukrainian shipping company that delivers for free.

Philipp has also partnered with a friend in Germany who owns a security company. He has been delivering supplies to Lviv and bringing back refugees. He was even able to reunite a woman with her husband. “It blows my mind that he is literally risking his life to help others,” she says.

Philipp plans to continue finding ways to support Ukraine and is considering selling T-shirts or candles in the store to raise money and awareness for the cause.