Patrick Stokes will share photos from his trip to the Ukraine.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center will present local resident and photographer Patrick Stokes who will give an illustrated lecture about his recent experience as a humanitarian aid volunteer in Ukraine. The program will be Thursday at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Stokes spent five weeks this past fall traveling across Ukraine with Siobhan’s Trust, a Scottish-based nonprofit organization that provides food relief to Ukrainians in need across the entire country. With camera in hand, he documented his experience and will share what he gained in this special talk.

Stokes’ presentation will include a brief history of Ukraine, as well as a video and a few of the thousands of photographs he took while volunteering. Immediately following the presentation, there will be a pizza party, meet and greet, and fund-raising event to support Siobhan’s Trust at a location to be announced.

You can get a preview of Stokes’ presentation on Notes From the Aisle Seat, the Opera House podcast hosted by Tom Loughlin. Notes From the Aisle Seat is available wherever podcasts can be found, including Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, and Amazon Prime Music, as well as on the Opera House website and YouTube Channel.

Admission to the lecture is free, with donations gratefully accepted. Opera House programming is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and the Ralph Wilson Jr. Arts & Cultural Initiative as administered by the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center is a member-supported not-for-profit performing arts center with a mission to “present the performing arts for the benefit of our community and region … providing access to artistic diversity … and high quality programming at an affordable price.” It is located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.