sport news New York Jets' billionaire owners on donating $1MILLION to help victims of the ... trends now
Like the rest of the world, Suzanne Johnson was horrified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
She knew she had to help Ukrainian refugees, so her family decided to donate $1million to humanitarian causes.
Suzanne is married to billionaire New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and is the daughter of Stefan Ircha, a Ukrainian immigrant who fled his homeland after World War II aged 21.
Suzanne married New York Jets owner Woody Johnson (right), 20 years her senior, in 2009
He built a life in America, meeting his wife, Marie, a Ukrainian American, and the pair raised their family in Manhattan's Little Ukraine in the East Village.
Splitting the sum into $100,000 chunks, the Johnsons have supported 10 separate charities to focus aid where it is needed most – and the family want to keep the humanitarian crisis at the forefront of peoples' minds.
'One of the organizations we've donated to was Razom here in New York and another was Plast Scouting. These are companies I've known since growing up, we've donated to some of them before. And then the third one Nova 24 was my son Brick's idea…'
While watching Wimbledon, eldest son Brick, 15, saw World No 1 Iga Swiatek announcing an exhibition match in Poland to raise money for Ukrainian war victims.
'I thought that was a perfect idea for us to go over and to see what the Ukrainian people in Poland are experiencing. Just to go there,' Brick said.
'Iga was so supportive of this, this lightened my heart a lot and made me feel amazing that it was just not being forgotten. We want to keep it in the front of people's minds.'
Suzanne, Woody, Brick and brother Jack, 13, were at the event in Krakow in mid-July, with Swiatek playing the retired Agnieszka Radwanska while Ukrainian star Elina Svitolina acted as umpire.
'We wanted to do a trip as a family because I'm 100 per cent Ukrainian. My father came to this country when he's 21 years old right after World War II as a refugee himself,' Suzanne says.
Suzanne (second right) says it was son Brick's (left) idea to go to Poland for a tennis exhibition
'My sons are 50 per cent Ukrainian - and we wanted them to go to Ukraine or to Poland to see what this conflict has done and how the people are surviving. Because this was their grandfather in 1947.
'And their grandfather passed away in 2019 and he is not here to do something which he would like to do because this country has given him so much. So it's his grandsons' - as well as his daughter's – responsibility to do this for him.
'When we decided to do this trip our State Department said it was way too dangerous to enter Ukraine at the time. We then decided to move our location to Poland, where over three and a half million refugees have now been so graciously taken in by Poland. So we are very thankful to that country.
'When we were in Poland, there was one hotel that during Covid had gone into disrepair. So there was a basically a ministry that decided to ask them if they could use it. They refurbished it and then now families are living in these rooms.
'And another one of our donations is to CityServe – which refurbished it to help another 100 Ukrainian refugee families.'
While in Poland the Johnsons visited refugee centers at the Dom Wczasowy
