Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
‘Overwhelming’ response
Ukrainian church collects items for refugees and those left in war-town country
The response to the collection drive for donations to help the people of war-torn Ukraine has been overwhelming, said persons involved in a donation dropoff taking place Saturday at Presentation of Our Lord Ukrainian Church.
“The phone is just ringing off the hook from people wanting to help, and they have stepped up in more ways than I can imagine. Almost every North Penn school is doing collections. Community organizations are taking collections. Hatfield Township’s taking collections for us. It’s just overwhelming to me,” said Ellen Kostrubiak, Presentation of Our Lord’s communications coordinator.
Eugene Luciw, president of the Philadelphia branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and a Presentation of Our Lord parishioner, also said there was an amazing response from the community.
“I was stunned by how much traffic there is outside,” bringing in donations, he said Saturday during the drop-off hours.
The parish has families that have close relatives and friends remaining in Ukraine, as well as ones whose families came to the U.S. generations ago, he said.
“We’re all Ukrainians, and we feel as if everybody in Ukraine is a brother or a sister,” he said.
“Being Ukrainian never really leaves you here in the United States or anywhere else,” he said. “I, for instance, was born in Philadelphia and raised in Philadelphia and I feel myself to be as Ukrainian as any Ukrainian in Ukraine, but I’m also 100 percent American.”
“Any attack on my people is an attack on me,” Luciw said. “The response you see here is the desire to assist.”
Father Vasil Bunik, the parish priest, has a brother remaining in the Ukraine, who has joined the armed
forces, Kostrubiak said. Her husband’s grandparents came to the U.S. in 1914, she said.
With snow falling as the March 12 donation dropoff time began, cars arrived with donations while there was also a stream of calls checking in if the collection was still being held that day despite the inclement weather.
“We’re here,” Kostrubiak told callers, but said there would also be another collection 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 19. The church at 1564 Allentown Road neighbors Walton Farm Elementary School.
Donations that will be taken to the Presentation of Our Lord collection may also be dropped off in the lobby of the Hatfield Township administration building at 1950 School Road until Friday, March 18. Donations at the Hatfield Township building will be accepted 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon Friday, March 18.
The donations received at Presentation of Our Lord will be distributed through the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee in Philadelphia. A list of materials needed is available at UUARC.org. Donated medical supplies
should have an expiration date a minimum of nine months out.
The United Nations says more than 2.5 million refugees have left Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Others remain in Ukraine, but have fled their homes and are now in places such as subways while the fighting continues, Luciw said.
“They all need help. They’re all without homes now,” he said.
“One of the images that breaks my heart is when I see the refugees arriving in places such as Poland. You’ll notice that it’s predominately women and children, so that means that there are husbands that are left behind,” he said.
Those men could get killed in the fighting or be unable to reunite with their families if they get stuck behind a renewed Iron Curtain, he said.
The number of refugees is expected to increase, he said, with many left not only homeless, but having become broken families because of death or separation.
“That’s why the call to action is so important for all of us, for all Americans, not just Ukrainian Americans, but for all Americans,” Luciw said.