St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown will collect donations for Ukraine through noon this Sunday, March 6, 2020.
The response since Friday has been impressive: Stacks of flashlights, batteries, toiletry articles and sleeping bags line one wall inside the Parish House at 70 Maple Ave.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity. This morning a little boy came with toys, all new. It melts your heart,” said Dee Klikier, outreach coordinator for St. Peter’s.
Klikier said more first aid kits and sleeping bags are needed. And monetary contributions, to help pay for shipping. (Make checks payable to St. Peter’s and write “Ukraine” on the memo line.) And help with packing on Sunday.
The Rev. Anne Thatcher, rector of St. Peter’s, said she also has received inquiries from people wanting to take in Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion. She said she is forwarding these inquiries to Refugee Assistance Morris Partners (RAMP), a faith-based coalition that has been helping resettle families from the Middle East.
Home Depot in Dover knocked 75 percent off the price of boxes to help the Ukrainian relief effort, said Kathleen Carozza, also with the church outreach committee.
Carozza got things started after seeing a social media posting by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th Dist.), relaying a call for donations to the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey of Whippany.
“It’s been a tremendous response,” said Oksana Lodziuk Krywulych, who serves on the Ukrainian American Cultural Center board, and is a representative of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America.
Gov. Phil Murphy and Senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez visited the Whippany center on Saturday, Krywulych said.
Area groups have contributed truckloads of items–which may take awhile to get shipped. Everything must travel by air to Poland.
From there, the items are trucked to the Ukrainian city of Lviv, on the country’s western border, said Krywulych. Shipments by sea are too dangerous because ports are in eastern Ukraine, she said.
Priority items right now are medical supplies, said Krywulych, who has cousins in Lviv, and in the port city of Odesa.
“Most days I’m glued to various news sources, crying…. We spend days and nights trying to figure how to send aid over in the best way posible, to reach the right areas and do the most good.”
Krywulych likened Russian President Vladimir Putin to Joseph Stalin, who starved Ukrainians in the 1930s, a dark period known as the Holomodor.
Putin’s “rhetoric is genocidal. He’s saying Ukrainians are not a people, they’re not a country,” she said.
“He is using medieval methods to starve out a population…. he is basically committing a genocide. He’s using cluster bombs that are banned during wartime. He is a madman.”
Krywulych said the items listed below, along with blankets, are needed immediately. They should be boxed separately–like items in their own boxes– and clearly labeled. They may be taken to the Ukrainian center at 60 N. Jefferson Road in Whippany from noon to 4 pm this Sunday.
Monetary contributions are most useful, she said, because they give relief organizations on the ground the greatest flexibility to meet urgent needs as situations change.
Contributions for humanitarian aide can be made to the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America’s Facebook page or website.
Krywulych and her organization also support an online petition requesting a United Nations no-fly zone over Ukraine.
If you’ve read this far… you clearly value your local news. Now we need your help to keep producing the local coverage you depend on! More people are reading Morristown Green than ever. But costs keep rising. Reporting the news takes time, money and hard work. We do it because we, like you, believe an informed citizenry is vital to a healthy community.
So please, CONTRIBUTE to MG or become a monthly SUBSCRIBER. ADVERTISE on Morristown Green. LIKE us on Facebook, FOLLOW us on Twitter, and SIGN UP for our newsletter.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.