A Sunshine Coast distillery has made its own special toast to the power of friendship, international relations and hopes for peace in Ukraine by bringing out a limited-edition gin product.
Woombye-based Sunshine & Sons created General’s Friendship Gin to celebrate International Friendship Day on Sunday, July 30.
The $99, 700ml bottle honours General Valerii Zaluzhnyi – the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and hero of the people, named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People In The World in 2022.
The dry gin celebrates friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals, and Sunshine & Sons says is ideal when garnished with fresh or frozen pomegranate seeds.
The colourful label artwork, commissioned for this project, is by Ukranian street artist Yuri Krasnoshchok and features General Zaluzhnyi “expressing his friendship and love of the Ukranian people in a field of sunflowers under a Ukrainian sky”.
And who better to launch the new drop than Ukranian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko as part of his official duties on a visit to the region last Friday.
Customers purchasing this gin – with a limited release of 5000 – will add about $34 a bottle to the $150,000 raised from other Sunshine & Sons’ previous fundraising products – Kherson Liberation Gin ($99) and Patron’s Peace Vodka ($99), which to date have helped buy metal detectors now being used in Ukraine in humanitarian efforts to prevent tragic death and carnage from landmines.
“Love for our fellow man means wars will always end and peace shall always return,” Sunshine & Sons says in releasing the gin.
“We hope that General Valerii Zaluzhnyi and the sons and daughters of Ukraine see that day soon.”
One of Sunshine & Sons’ founders, Matt Hobson, said the Nambour Connection Road distillery had done “a very large number” of special projects, producing bottles of spirits for community and even some political fundraisers.
“The gentleman involved, Nathan Burston, is a Canberra resident who has no affiliation with Ukraine but he was just concerned, as many Australians are, that people are entitled to some peace and he didn’t believe what was happening in Ukraine was fair and just,” Matt said.
“He was having some difficulty raising funds and his vision was always to buy de-mining equipment that was unequivocally for humanitarian purposes.
“He contacted us and we said we’d love to help as we normally do when people ask us.
“This is the third in effectively an ongoing series of fundraising bottles. We started with Kherson Liberation Gin ($99) and Patron’s Peace Vodka (Patron has become known as the mine-sniffing dog of the Ukraine).
“We’re very excited to do a third one and specifically being focused on International Friendship Day.”
Matt said 100 per cent of funds raised would be used to buy metal detectors.
The chuffed.org website outlines the dire situation with landmines in the Ukraine.
Campaign organiser Nathan Burraston writes that when his Ukrainian colleague Boris went to protest the Russian invasion at the start of the war, he joined him in solidarity. But as he started learning about the people who had been maimed and killed by landmines, often along evacuation routes, he felt compelled to do more.
“Volunteers on the ground have removed over 150,000 landmines to date – but the Russian army left millions,” he tells supporters.
“Even teachers are being trained to clear landmines. One mum did the training to make it safe for her kids to return.
“Ukraine is now believed to be covered in more landmines and unexploded ordnance than any other country in the world.”
Seven weeks ago, another pallet of metal detectors was sent from Garrett Australia to RAAF Amberley.
The total number of metal detectors for de-mining sent to Ukraine is now more than 180.
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