Andrey Ivanov, founder of Flash Love, accepts the Impact Award at the Clark County Republican Women quarterly dinner meeting Friday. Photo courtesy Bonnie Ruiz

Andrey Ivanov, founder of Flash Love, and Taylor Wilkerson, the current leader of the organization’s affiliate Spartan Challenge, were present to accept the award

Leah Anaya
For Clark County Today

At the quarterly dinner meeting Friday night, the Clark County Republican Women (CCRW) celebrated their annual achievement night, honoring several people and groups for their contributions to the community. During the event, multiple awards were given, to include a special presentation for the organization Flash Love. Flash Love was the Impact Award recipient of 2022, meaning CCRW collected donations from members throughout 2022 and presented the total amount to the organization at the dinner.

Andrey Ivanov, founder of Flash Love, and Taylor Wilkerson, the current leader of the organization’s affiliate Spartan Challenge, were present to accept the award. Ivanov expressed his gratitude for the award and mentioned that the organization is working hard to empower the youth of today to take on the responsibility of their future. This includes, he said, the youth growing disciplined and learning to follow their values along with putting in the work necessary to secure their success in life, along with assisting those around them who may be less privileged than they are (such as, Ivanov specified, the elderly, single mothers, and the disabled).

Ivanov expressed the importance of the community partnering with organizations like Flash Love to support the youth in their mission. “Imagine youth going into communities and helping the less fortunate by taking care of their yards, building relationships, and loving on the people who rarely see love,” the Flash Love website states. These are the core reasons for Flash Love’s existence, according to Ivanov. These are the seemingly small steps that will heal the broken nation.

Following the receipt of the award, which totaled over $3,500, Ivanov pledged to gift $500 of that to Young Conservative Americans for Liberty (YCAL), a group led by two graduates of the Spartan Challenge, the group’s founder and President Ruby Ruiz and Vice President Aodan McKinley. YCAL’s mission is to encourage and help youth to learn about the US Constitution and empower them to get active in their community to support their conservative values.

Shown here (left to right) are Flash Love Founder Andrey Ivanov, Ruby Ruiz (Spartan Challenge graduate and YCAL president), Spartan Challenge leader Tylor Wilkerson, and Aodan McKinley (Spartan Challenge graduate and YCAL vice president). Photo courtesy Bonnie Ruiz

Ivanov said the money awarded to Flash Love will be used to host even more community engagement and youth-led service projects, such as garbage clean up on the sides of highways in the wake of homeless encampments (to include the hauling and dumping of the garbage) and responding to the homes of the elderly and single mothers who reach out for assistance with things like cleaning out gutters and roofs or landscape maintenance.

The day before the dinner, the Flash Love trailer, which is housed at the US Digital office building in Vancouver, was hitched and stolen in broad daylight around 3 p.m. on Thursday. Ivanov said the trailer contained approximately $14,000 worth of gear and equipment for the Spartan Challenge, which is in week two of 10 at the time of this report.

This video screenshot shows the suspect vehicle involved in the theft of the Flash Love trailer, filled with $14,000 worth of equipment, from the US Digital parking lot in Vancouver. Photo courtesy Andrey Ivanov/Facebook

The cameras at US Digital were able to catch an image of the vehicle associated with the theft, which is a white SUV with damage on the passenger side and no license plates. The vehicle appears to be the same used in the theft of the Goldie’s BBQ trailer earlier in the week. The Flash Love trailer was seen near Mall 205 in Portland still attached to the SUV Thursday evening, but it has still not been located at the time of this report. The Flash Love trailer has been seen as listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

Some have speculated that the two thefts at prominent faith-based organizations may mean that the thefts are targeted, but police have not confirmed the notion at this time.

The CCRW dinner also saw a change of leadership, as the group’s president, Liz Pike, stepped down, with the vice president, Liz Cline, taking over the position. Cline has been a vocal advocate for groups like Flash Love and assisted in the CCRW’s adoption of the YCAL group, providing seed money to get that group started. Cline has demonstrated a clear passion for encouraging young adults to get active in their communities and in politics to set the stage for the future of conservatism in the nation, but even more specifically in Clark County.

For more information on Flash Love, or to make a donation, go to https://www.flashlove.org/.