Within days, multiple groups in the community have come together to donate needed items for Ukranian refugees.
Cindy Naudascher of Dublin, who chairs the outreach ministry at the All Saint’s Church in Peterborough, said it was only a week ago the committee gathered, asking what they could do to help.
“We were all so moved, and we wanted to be proactive in a positive way, and we wanted to give our parishioners the same opportunity. We were all looking for ways to help,” Naudascher said.
They reached out to a refugee assistance organization the church had worked with before, NuDay, and found they were organizing a collection of items to send to refugees who had made it to Poland. The church announced on Sunday it would be collecting items to send to NuDay, and within days, the church garage was already filling up with bags of clothes, blankets and hygiene items.
“It was just a scramble, and now here we are,” Naudascher said, indicating the pile of bags already stacked up in the church storage. “It’s been a real outpouring.”
Naudascher, who also serves as a board member for the Peterborough Food Pantry, said the pantry has also contributed to the effort, and will be sending 100 cases of assorted dry and canned goods and shelf-stable staples like peanut butter, canned fruits and vegetables and dried eggs from its excess supply.
“People want to help,” Naudascher said. “You watch the news for even a minute, and you want to help.”
Along with the All Saints collection, a group of citizens in Jaffrey has also been collecting for NuDay, using an empty storefront in the Monadnock Plaza donated by Belletete’s for the purpose. Diane Hoffman and Judy Ouellette of Jaffrey came up with the idea while chatting over a cup of coffee. Ouellette had some clothes she wanted to donate, and said she wished there were a way to get them to the refugees.
“Just watching the TV, and seeing them leave their homes with a backpack, was heartbreaking,” Ouellette said. “Four years ago, I had a fire, so I know what it is to have nothing.”
“I said, ‘OK, let’s do that,’” Hoffman said.
With that, they were off and running, but as they approach the last days of their week-long collection drive, the two said they have been staggered by the response, collecting hundreds of large boxes of items.
January Folsom, a volunteer at the Rindge Swap Shop, a place for residents to drop off or find still-good used items at the Rindge Transfer Station, said the swap shop had contributed to the cause, loading up two carloads of donations from the items available at the shop.
“We heard about it, and decided it would be a good thing to do, and the right thing to do. Ukranians have a lot less than we do right now,” Folsom said.
Swap shop volunteers sorted through items the shop already had, and selected good-quality clothes for men, women and children, shoes, blankets, sleeping bags, sheets, stuffed animals, toys and towels for a total of 28 boxes of donations. Folsom said the shop didn’t specifically ask for donations from its users, but many found out about the project through them, and said they would make their own donations to the Jaffrey location.
“It’s nice to see. I think after COVID, we needed something to do, and this was a chance to band together,” Folsom said.
Tammy and David Griffin of Jaffrey stopped by Monadnock Plaza on Tuesday to drop off their own donations. Tammy Griffin said she had attended a birthday party over the weekend, and instead of gifts, her friend had asked for donations for Ukraine. The Griffins went shopping for personal care and hygiene items to donate.
“We have so much. I can’t imagine leaving my house with just what’s on my back,” Tammy Griffin said. “We want to be able to help.”
“The kindness has just been unreal. The caring and team work that have gone into this is too unbelievable. We just can’t thank people enough for caring and pulling together,” Hoffman said.
Ouellette, who herself donated dozens of clothing items, said from the first day, they far exceeded the expectations of how many people wanted to give. Many people, she said, had delivered brand-new goods, including one resident who had purchased 15 new sleeping bags, and another who had filled a large box with new toys.
“Personally I’m grateful that I can do this, and we can do it. The community has been phenomenally supportive, and very generous. We’ve had people come from as far away as Peterson, Mass., to donate,” said Marc Tieger, who helped organize the Jaffrey drive. “It’s so much about people coming together to help other people. You go down there, you see people working, packing and dropping things off, and it’s such a good cause.”
Donations from both the Jaffrey group and All Saints Church will be collected on Friday and delivered via a truck donated by Atlas Pyrotechnics to a central location in Derry, where they will be packaged and shipped to assist Ukranian refugees in Poland. All Saints Church’s collection ended on Wednesday at noon. The Jaffrey group will be accepting donations at the Monadnock Plaza through Thursday, March 24, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.