You're reading: Miss Ukrainian Diaspora 2014 chosen in Chicago

A jury in the Miss Ukrainian Diaspora contest has selected this year’s winner among 16 young women on the stage of Copernicus Center in Chicago on Sept. 27. 

Ulyana
Fenyn, the winner, is a student of DePaul University originally from Kolomiya, a city in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast in western Ukraine.

Maryna Semenova, originally from Dnipropetrovsk, became the first runner-up and was also favored by the contest viewers as the People’s Choice
2014.

Maryna Semenova, the first runner up of Miss Ukrainian Diaspora 2014 contest that has been held Copernicus Center in Chicago on Sept. 27.

There have been also many contestants from Kyiv, Cherkasy, Odesa, some smaller cities of western Ukraine, and even Sevastopol, a city in Crimea.

16 contestants of the Miss Ukrainian Diaspora 2014 on the stage along with Iryna Bilyk, the Ukrainian pop singer, who has been invited to entertain the visitors of the show on Sept. 27.

The jury
included famous people like the junior United States Senator from
Illinois Mark Kirk, NBC host and model Natalie Martinez, Miss Illinois 2015 Renee Wronecki, and members of Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S.

Ukrainian journalist Roman Vintoniv hosted the show, posing as his famous character Michael
Shchur – a mustache-wearing diaspora TV reporter. Ukrainian pop star Iryna Bilyk entertained the guests with some of her hit songs.

The evening
gowns of all contestants were made by Ukrainian fashion designer Oksana Karavanska, who
has also resided in a jury. 

This year’s contest pursued the idea of helping Ukraine in the times of the war conflict that has been going on in Donbass. Hence, the painted helmet of one of the EuroMaidan protesters was sold for $3,000 during the auction at the show. All the money will go to one of the military hospitals in Ukraine.