Review of this Past Week's Efforts
Lena has been helping me shop. She’s a refugee herself.
This past week we were able to see 2 loads of ours head to Ukraine. One was help in joining a lady that I had not met before , but we were introduced to each other through the local fireman/engineer who organized the medical bags, Pawel. Her name is Joanna and her husband is in Ukraine on the front lines, so to speak. They had many needs and once Pawel told me about them, I decided that I wanted to help meet at least some of them.
There were various things in this load including medical supplies, things for a children’s home and some people on the front lines who lack basic supplies. You can see here I also included 10 of our bags of charity quilt, towel, etc. This bunch of stuff was going to a location in a different place than things we had sent before, so I wanted to make sure to include some of these!
In addition to these boxes - which are layers deep, we had 3 huge boxes of backpacks, a very heavy box of raincoats and some baby rice which actually came the next day after the people came and took this away.
Then, on Thursday, my husband decided to head south with two tons of meat that were paid for by another organization and he was just asked to transport it. We also threw in some of the things we had.
This went to a camp not too far into the country of Ukraine where they will use some and distribute some. Tim Smith, of our guests, Tim and Luda, who had left 2 weeks before, came back and is currently with us again. He came in from the airport, landed, and headed with Mike to the border with this load on Thursday. That meant he had two stamps in his passport in one day as coming into Poland.
This was Mike’s first trip with using his own trailer. He said it pulled quite well. The trailer only had about 2 tons of food and supplies in it and can hold about 3. The truck had about a ton.
The weather was less than desirable as we were packing this stuff up.
Stackers and lifters!
Here are the people who took the meat and will dispense it. This is IN Ukraine. They meet in Ukraine at a pre-appointed spot and move the stuff from one vehicle to the next. They have to hurry as they have a curfew in Ukraine and can’t be out on the roads after 7 pm, I think it is.
This week, I began the process of thinning out some of my own quilts. I actually had to do this BEFOE Tim Smith arrived back again. This was on Tuesday! I spent ALL day working on one room.
I had a heart-to-heart talk with myself about the number of quilts I had in my daughters’’ old room. That room had become what anyone would say is a ‘hoarder’s room” - and by that I mean, you couldn’t walk in there without actually walking ‘on stuff’. I mean it. Watch any Hoarder’s Show - that is how this one room was. No, I did not take a picture. It was too discouraging.
I took all the collected stuff which had made its way into the room and sorted it. I then had to deal with the reality of having so many finished but not being used quilts which take up a lot of space! Especially queen size quilts!
I really didn’t have a good place to take them!
I already had brought the junk (umm, stuff) upstairs where I will need to deal with it bag by bag, and my downstairs long arm room has become a place for sourcing all the goodies for the charity quilt bags (extra blankets, pillows, tote bags, etc). I couldn’t add quilts to it. I didn’t want to move them to the library downstairs or the attic area. I thought, “why?” My mom has plenty and Rachael has so many she hardly knows what to do with them! So, after facing the fact, that while it is hard to let go (for me), I needed to find new homes for some of my beloved quilts. So, I found about 25 I decided I could see off to new homes without too much anguish. (LOL - this is so melodramatic).
While the volunteers were at my house on Wed., they filled up flashlights and head lamps with batteries and they took that whole load of “stuff” in the living room and put it in this huge van.
I decided to let them take some quilts if they wanted them. They all have hopes of going back to Ukraine eventually and “going home.”
Why not? They were Ukrainians! This is what they took:
Only Rebekah, on the left shown here in blue, is NOT Ukrainian. All the rest of the volunteers are, and I let them choose first from this batch of my own quilts that I’m thinning out.
On Thursday as my husband and Tim were on their way to Ukraine, I was left at home to start planning and thinking about the next load.
This next load is going to take supplies to villages surrounding the larger city of Bila Tserkov. Obviously I don’t know all the details, but preparation for such a trip involves a lot of shopping! So, shop we did!
I’ve also spent considerable time on line ordering things that are better shipped instead of my running around to various places to get a few here and there.
I know you’ve seen shopping pictures before, but I started shopping on Thursday - a bit and then LOTS of it on Friday and some on Saturday. We will finish it up on the day you read this. Sometimes I was alone and other times I had helpers - Tim and Lena.
In addition to these items, there will be 20 duvets and cover sets, 11 charity quilts bags and 6 of those vinyl covered quilts I have and possibly 2 more if I can get them ready. There are also several large boxes of adult diapers and more ladies’ hygiene items that are not here yet.
I’ll post what the trailer looked like next week. We’ve been doing LOTS for this crowd. But this one is going to two different pastors who will then use it to help people in surrounding villages around where they live and work. I’ve heard that when they have taken things to the wives of soldiers - not people they necessarily know well - the ladies have burst out in tears, so touched that someone was thinking about them and cared.
I had been sick earlier in the week, but as the days went by, I did feel a bit better, day by day. The cough is still lingering, but gradually dissipating.
Oh and Thurs. I did end up helping out the other group of shoppers by bringing the van to the place where they were shopping and having them put their stuff in it and then taking it to the garage where they unloaded it. These are two of the so-called wholesale places near us. The difference between them and the deep discount stores is that these places carry the name brand items that sometimes the deep discount stores do not.
We will also be having two more men coming in from the states during the next two weeks, but hopefully the room situation will work out with only 2 here at the same time. That way I can quickly remake the beds and have it all work. The room where I have my fabric stored has a Murphy bed in it and serves as a guest room AND now that I cleaned out some quilts, my daughters’ room can serve as a guest room as well. I need to take out another 25 quilts, though, at least!
So, this week I did some charity quilting and finished up some of those quilt bags using my own quilts so they could catch the trailer that is leaving tomorrow.
I am hoping to get a couple more done but not sure I will have time. They want me to work on some Kevlar vests that need repair.
I also needed to make a pillowcase for one of our guests and I can’t actually find mine! What has happened is that without kids in the house, I really don’t know where all my pillowcases have migrated! Seriously. We bought some more expensive bigger pillows a few years ago now as my husband wanted them - though I really don’t care, actually, so we haven’t been using those standard size pillowcases for a while now. Anyway…
Besides all this shopping, I spent not a little bit of time opening boxes and dealing with trash.
And while I did focus on “further away” this week, I did manage to get a high chair for a Ukrainian family and a portable wardrobe for a visiting Ukrainian family. I forgot to get a photo of it before I gave it to the family (it was in a box - rather unexciting looking!)
As I write this, I am also preparing for the next load as well - as it is going to go to a place PAST Kiev - into an area that has been hit hard with shelling, but currently is quiet. I’m hoping to finish getting all the rest of these ready for that trip. This is where Lena, the blond lady shown above, is from.
Is that sufficient? I know there are small details that I’ve left out, but in general, it’s been my week. It’s been busy but I did get to quilt a couple of charity quilts and I’m almost ready for the next ten! I’d love to send those on to that hard hit area as well - those bags of quilt/towel, blanket, etc.
But that’s all for now. Thanks so much for coming along with me on my journey!
Have a great day!
Oh, I almost forgot - we are trying to raise the rest of the money needed to ship the quilts to Poland!
Many of you have wanted to help!
Obviously if someone comes through with a big donation, we’ll adjust the totals. But we can’t wait around for a millionaire to help us - we’ll just do what we usually do - take one step in front of hte otehr and try to see if we can get there no matter what.
Here’s the button! Thanks for any help you can give. Feel free to share with non quilters who might be interested!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!
Here’s one of the beauties we have!
