The first shipment of locally-donated items is en route to Lublin, Poland, to aid Ukrainian refugees fleeing from their home country as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people.
Holy Protection of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church on York Road began collecting items to donate to the refugee crisis, specifically seeking items for babies and small children.
An email sent out on Saturday by church pastor Andrij Figol called for anyone who was able to donate items and bring them to the church as a member had a link to a shipping company.
The church, however, is now facing a logistical storage problem as the support from the community was so overwhelming the basement storage is at capacity.
Parishioner Mira Tersigni said she posted the call out for donations on social media and by midnight had upwards of 60 messages in her inbox from people looking to donate.
“Thank you to everyone who has donated already, we are overwhelmed and so appreciative of what we have received in terms of physical donations,” said Tersigni. “At this time, we can not accept any more physical donations basically due to resources and infrastructure to hold and ship.”
In the three days since the call-out started, the church has packed the eight crates currently on their way to Poland and has an estimated stockpile able to fill 50 additional crates.
According to the church, the goal for the plane leaving on Tuesday is to reach refugees by Friday.
Iryna Soluk-Figol, the pastor's wife, said the church is currently looking at sending a second cross-continental donation later this week.
“We’re sending one today, one on Friday, and it really depends. We're working with the Embassy of Poland and they’re being extremely supportive, but it takes time to figure things out at times. There are lots of different communities and organizations reaching out, so they're trying to coordinate.”
Among the donations were up to eight unopened boxes of diapers and crates of baby formula.
“I don't want to focus on Guelph moms, but every message was from a Guelph mom," Tersigni said.
Rather than selling clothes and diapers online, they were taking those posts down and donating it, she added..
The church will be moving to a monetary-based donation collection system for those who would still like to help the Ukrainian community.
Tersigni said the monetary collection will allow for the church to ensure the donations are given to those still in Ukraine and allow for the church to still collect donations despite their basement packed full of previously-donated items.
Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church is working on holding a rally in Guelph in the near future.
