Volunteers soldier on for Ukraine
St. John Ukrainian Catholic Church recently shipped package that was marked No. 4,916
It would be easy for Laryssa Doig and the volunteers she works alongside to feel tired.
It has been two years of picking up donations, raising money, identifying contacts in Ukraine, driving back and forth to Toronto shipping packages and putting together fundraising events.
But tired is not a feasible option. Not when the people of Ukraine have spent the past two years fighting to keep their country — and its history — alive.
“We are not in the middle of it. We’re not losing our homes, we’re not constantly having to run into a bomb shelter three or four times a day. My children go to school and they don’t have any fears, they don’t have to worry about learning in a subway station because of the air raid sirens,” said Doig.
“We don’t want to hear about the loss of life. We don’t want to hear any more bad news.”
Understanding how lucky they are to be safe in Canada keeps her and all the volunteers going each day — and keeps them coming together, working together and asking for community support in whatever way residents are able to contribute. Now more than ever.
“This is the time, because at the beginning we had loads of people coming through. It was fresh in the news, everybody was ‘I’m so sorry to hear this, this is so awful.’ And it is still awful. That hasn’t changed,” she said.
“It might even be worse at this point.”
Since the early weeks of the war, volunteers in the church group have been collecting donations and money, sending packages to their contacts in Ukraine.
The group’s most recent shipment is No. 4,916.
Over the past two years, Doig said, the contacts lists has grown and it has become a much more efficient process.
The group receives request lists of items in desperate need. Air packages are sent to Ukraine weekly, with high-priority items that include tourniquets, bandages, hand warmers and high-end medical equipment.
One request came in for an intraosseous infusion kit — it is used to inject medication into a person’s bone marrow. Volunteers helped to raise money to purchase the $1,500 device, plus its $100 cartridges.
“It basically saves their lives, it stops them from bleeding out. It acts as a faster IV system, it’s really crucial,” Doig said. “They were just over the moon when they got the kit, so it’s nice to see that we are able to meet their needs.”
Home-care supplies are a “huge” need at the moment, she said, asking anyone with gauze, saline, bandages, “we will gladly take it as long as it’s not expired.”
The group’s most recent shipment included charging bases for the front lines, first-aid items, protein bars, warm socks and thermal underwear — all items that continue to be collected through the church.
Doig had hoped by this point, two years in, it would be fundraising to help Ukraine rebuild, but that’s not the case.
She said there’s a solid group, about five or six people, who are driving back-and-forth to Toronto, doing research on medical equipment, price matching, reaching out to the public for donations, organizing fundraisers and picking up items from people who want to donate.
“I’m so grateful for the individuals that have continued to give their time and their efforts and their spirit.”
As part of its ongoing fundraising efforts, St. John’s Ukrainian Catholic Church is hosting perogy dinners, alternating between takeout and sit-in meals, with Ukrainian entertainment.
Last Thursday, Doig said a group of women came together at the church and sold about 234 meals, a profit of about $3,500, with all proceeds going toward humanitarian aid.
One of its next large fundraisers is going to be for diapers. Doig received a message that areas in Ukraine are rationing diapers to 10 per month per child.
“It’s just amazing trying to think of being rationed to diapers, something that we here have no worries about. And these poor families are there, just with the mothers and children and their husbands are all fighting or they were killed, and they don’t have access to diapers,” she said.
On the personal end — separate from the church fundraising — her family has raised money and sent two drones to Ukraine. Several committee members are planning to visit the country in a few weeks and meet their many contacts — “we’re basically family,” said Doig — in person.