SALISBURY, Md. - Late last year Mitzi Perdue, The widow of Perdue Farms CEO, Frank Perdue, auctioned off her emerald engagement ring to fund humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. The ring funded supplies like generators and school supplies. Today, Perdue visited The Salisbury School to talk about her experience in Ukraine and her ongoing philanthropy for the war torn country.
"We don't thankfully have to do bombing drills or worry about where the missiles are going to go off when I'm in a physics class - it was impressive to see how they were going to school and whether they were going to come home to their family dead or alive and how much they appreciated the education they were able to get." said math teacher at The Salisbury School, Stacy Dunne.
Perdue shared about her time in Ukraine learning from other's hardships during the war and avoiding danger herself.
"There were some risks involved... I spent more time in bomb shelters than I ever expected to or traveling at 80 miles per hour to avoid people from the Belarus border shooting at my car."
But Perdue's big message to students... "we can make a difference, even if it's small, it's a difference -Â Something that Frank used to say, 'If you want to be happy think of what you can do for somebody else. If you want to be miserable think of what's owed to you.' "
Perdue recommends donating to DonorSee.com/Ukraine to contribute to the education on and disarming of land mines, that are heavily used by Russia against Ukraine. She has plans to return to Ukraine to attend two land mine clearing schools that teach these skills.