Wilton hears first-hand accounts from Common Man for Ukraine

Members of the Antrim-based group Common Man for Ukraine related their experiences in the war-ravaged country to a group of residents at Parish Hall of the Second Congregational Church on Saturday. The group showed slides and video clips while talking about their work to help the people of Ukraine.

“In our first year alone, we raised $1.5 million through donations in New Hampshire,” said co-founder Lisa Mure.

Founded in 2022 by Mure, Alex Ray, Susan Mathison and Steve Rand, the group is an initiative of the Plymouth Rotary Foundation, a New Hampshire-based non-profit.

“As an all-volunteer organization, Common Man for Ukraine delivers humanitarian aid, food and trauma counseling to Ukrainian orphans and displaced families,” according to the group.

Ray said, “After Russia invaded, people wanted to help but they didn’t know how. So, we went to Ukraine to find out for ourselves.”

As an owner of The Common Man restaurants across New Hampshire, Ray partially funded the initial Ukraine trip himself. “I said I’ll put up a big chunk of money and see if New Hampshire will match it with donations,” he said.

Before going to Poland, Rand reached out to the Rotary Club district governor. Common Man for Ukraine has done much of its work and travel coordination through Poland’s Rotary Club.

According to the Rotary International webpage, “Rotary is a global network of more than 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change.” The club believes that it has a responsibility “to take action on our world’s most persistent issues.” The issues range from peace promotion and environmental protection to growing local economies and fighting disease.

Each time members of Common Man for Ukraine visited the country, the situation was different. Mure said the first time there were millions of refugees. She said Polish Rotary groups focused on providing food, clothes and homes for the refugees, adding that children were kept in safe houses and orphanages.

“The next time we went, we started visiting front line villages,” she said, many of which are isolated and poor. When Russian forces retreat from the occupied villages, they destroy everything in their wake, leaving structures virtually uninhabitable.

“We go to Ukraine to reinforce relationships with volunteers, see our aid in action and to make sure we’re nimble enough to meet the evolving needs of its people,” Mathison said. “Person-to-person contact is everything to us.”

In 2022, the group established a trauma counseling camp in Zakopane, Poland, for orphaned Ukrainian children. Since then, more than 1,500 children received mental healthcare. Sessions for the program run each month for three weeks for up to 35 children.

“We modeled the retreat off a pre-existing one started in Poland in 2014,” Mure said. “At the outset of the Crimean War, Poland created a trauma retreat for orphans.”

The retreat is staffed by three teachers, a psychologist and an EMT. “At the retreat, the children build a network of peers who have dealt with the same loss,” according to Mathison.

“When they leave, they are given a card that has all of the coping skills they’ve learned written down on it,” she said. The group encourages the children’s mothers to use the cards as well.

In a video shown at the presentation, the group explained they provide food, warmth and love to the orphaned children. “We can make them feel like kids again, for a few weeks,” the group said.

The group was also joined by New Hampshire high school students on some of its trips to Ukraine. The Common Man group said students from Holderness School joined them for five days in March 2025 to assist with the trauma counseling retreat.

In light of the retreat’s success, the organization launched a separate mental health program in 2025 for mothers, which provides mental health services to soldiers’ widows.

“The retreat is 10 days at the same location as the children’s. There they receive professional counseling, peer group support, rest, coping skills, and shared tools for discussing trauma,” noted Mathison.

Since Russia invaded in 2022, the Common Man for Ukraine group has delivered over 4 million pounds of food, more than 10,000 sleeping bags and hundreds of generators to front line villages and children’s safe houses over a span of 14 trips to Ukraine. It has also raised and distributed more than $5 million in aid during that time.

“We couldn’t do it without our volunteer truck drivers,” the group said. In total, 750 trucks have driven more than 1 million miles to provide aid across the country.

Mathison said the group is preparing for its 15th trip, leaving leaving March 18.

If readers would like to help Common Man for Ukraine, the group says hosting a fund raiser is best. Otherwise, they’re more than happy to speak to groups in the area.

Mathison said the group is currently holding a fundraising raffle for a 4- by- 4-foot oil painting of a hand showing the peace sign. Tickets are $25.

All donations can be sent to the Plymouth Rotary Foundation.

For more information, go to commonmanforukraine.org or email info@commonmanforukraine.org.