Piper VanOrd, working with the Ukraine Relief Initiative, is set to leave for her sixth trip to Ukraine and Poland to help those displaced by the war this Wednesday. She will be bringing along Alex Zawacki. On previous trips, VanOrd’s son and daughter, and her friend, Megan Ullrich, have gone with her.

“This wasn’t the plan. I was very naive when we made our first trip,” VanOrd said. “The stars aligned so that my daughter and I could slip away before my work schedule got wild in summer, so we thought we’d go for a week, help as much as possible, and return home having done the best we could.

And we did. But seeing this crisis firsthand, how dire the situation was, and meeting so many incredible humans – both Polish and Ukrainian – it really weighs on you to get back again to help. The focus is the same each trip: leave our expectations behind, lift as many spirits as possible, and help as much as we can, wherever we can, for the time we are there.”

This trip, the duo plans to spend the beginning and end of their time in Europe in Krakow, Poland, with the time between spent in Ukraine.

Ukrainian women and children in Krakow, Poland, waiting in line for basic needs supplies at the Ukraine Relief Initiative Community Center in July.

” We will spend a couple days on each end in Krakow, Poland, volunteering where needed at the Ukrainian Community Center,” VanOrd said. “Our plan in-between those days is to deliver basic needs supplies to the Nest, an old dormitory in rural Ukraine that now houses 40 to 50 women and children that have had to flee war; then continue on to Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, helping at the Falcon. The Falcon is a series of hospitals that have been created by our friend Oksana, a 44-year-old trauma surgeon, who herself has suffered great loss in this war, and her small team. Their mission is to evacuate elderly and disabled, along with women and children, from active war zones, get them to the Falcon, give them medical care, retrieve documents, find them traditional or transitional housing depending on their condition, and deliver supplies to them regularly. Again, as with the center in Poland, this includes a heavy focus on making sure each and every one of them knows they have community and are not alone. That, on its own, is very special to witness firsthand.”

VanOrd said the situation has changed since she first traveled to Europe to help in April of last year. More stable institutions have been set up, but need has grown as the war has stretched on.

“In early April of 2022… the crisis was very fresh. The Community Center did not exist yet, so everyone was working out of the trunks of their cars and garages,” VanOrd said. “With the Community Center now established, which is funded in part by the Ukraine Relief Initiative, we now have a ‘home base’ in Krakow, Poland. The Center is incredible. It’s run by our Polish partners at URI and helps displaced women and children that have left everything behind, find a path to some sort of new normal. English and Polish language lessons, document retrieval – birth certificates, passports, etc, trauma therapy, resume writing, finding a place to live. But most of all it has created this really unique, strong bond of community where these women and children know they are not alone. With this said, the need right now is greater than ever. Several foundations and centers have closed due to lack of funding or manpower, while women and children continue to show up as the war rages on into a second winter. I met several women on my last trip that had just arrived having fled when the Kakhovka Dam along the Dnipro River was blown up and their communities were flooded.”

VanOrd said that because the need is so great, she has had to learn to focus on the help she can provide rather than the larger war.

“I’ve trained myself to zoom in when I think about the impact our community has had with each visit to both Poland and Ukraine,” she said. “The need is so great for the most basic things – soap, toothpaste, canned vegetables, flour, cooking oil – that you can fill a van with these things and watch them disappear in a day, even with systems in place. For example, because there are so many in need, they will be given choices, a can of corn or peas, shampoo or a toothbrush and toothpaste, groats or pasta; etc. The emotions are overwhelming when you see how grateful each of these people are to have these most basic choices.

“I actively focus on the good we are able to do, and the folks we are able to help. If I zoom out to how large this crisis is, it can immediately make you feel helpless. So we choose to zoom in and focus on what we have been able to accomplish. And we’ve found that helping one is helping many. For example, through a generous donation from a community member, we were able to get a generator to a dear friend in Kramatorsk last winter. Just about every week after that she would send me a message, thanking us profusely, letting me know her entire neighborhood was at their home, charging phones and getting warm. That this one generator brought hope to an entire neighborhood in such a dark time.”

VanOrd and Zawacki depart before sunrise on Wednesday.

FUNDRAISER TO BE HELD TODAY

A soup fundraiser is planned today at Allegheny Outfitters to help with aid efforts. Sausage, leek and potato soup and jambalaya will be available for a donation of six cents or more. VanOrd will be on-hand to discuss ongoing relief efforts. Soup will be served starting at 11:47 a.m. and be available until gone.

“We invite you to come take part in a community event that will not only make your taste buds happy while lifting our spirits, but also help our friends in Poland and Ukraine,” VanOrd said in a post on the event. “If you’re on the go and would prefer to bring your own container for a quick take-out, that works, too!”

She said donations to aid either this trip or the relief initiative are always welcome.

“Our suitcases are full for this trip, but yes, our community has filled our suitcases with supply donations every single time,” VanOrd said. “Monetary donations are always welcome. A little goes a long way. It has been our communities willingness to pitch in that’s allowed us to have the impact we’ve had. If you’d like to donate directly to our trip, donations can be dropped at our shop, Allegheny Outfitters, at 20 Clark Street, through 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7. We depart before the sun rises on Wednesday.”

To donate to the relief initiative, send a check payable to Hispanic Community Council, Ukraine Relief Initiative, c/o John Kersey, 208 Liberty Street, Warren, PA, 16365. Indicate Ukraine Relief Initiative in the memo section of the check and provide a note with your contact information. All contributions are tax-deductible through the Hispanic Community Council.

“This war is horrific, with so many layers of heartache,” VanOrd said. “But it has taught my family that while seeing the worst in humanity, we have also seen the absolute best in it. We’ve found the doers and helpers, and we are grateful for them and all we’ve learned. Regardless of whether you are able to donate, we hope you’ll keep all of them in your spiritual space.”