Ukrainian Orthodox church in Bloomingdale collecting help for the homeland
As the Russian military continues to pound Ukraine, the St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church is urging the suburban community to help in any way they can.
To add to the donations already collected, on Saturdays the church at 300 Army Trail Road in Bloomingdale will be selling pierogi, cabbage rolls and pastries. The kitchen is open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Bloomingdale church leaders say, thus far, they have donated $353,000 to a church in Mariupol, which they say has spent it on tourniquets, diapers, food and baby formula. Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, is a key port city and has been under siege by Russian troops, who blocked off supplies of water and food, cut power and bombed a maternity hospital.
Currently, Mariupol has no reliable count of the dead because authorities have not been able to collect all the bodies, officials there said. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that according to an adviser to the Mariupol mayor's office, 1,300 people have died in the city since Russian forces surrounded it, and at least 3,000 have been injured.
“While we inch along, innocent people are being killed by the hundreds,” said John Jaresko, president of the board of directors at St. Andrew.
“They are just burying hundreds of bodies. I hope the world rallies around this.”
Jaresko's family fled Ukraine during World War II. His sister, Natalie Jaresko, was Ukraine's minister of finance from 2014 to 2016. Both of them were born in the U.S.
The Bloomingdale church will take donated supplies — a church volunteer said Ukranians are particularly in need of basic medical supplies like crutches, bandages and rubbing alcohol — but Jaresko encourages people to donate money, saying it will reach Ukrainians faster. Supplies, he said, can be stuck in the U.S. for several months.
The church's collection and delivery system are being coordinated through Meest-America Inc., which provides logistics and freight forwarding services to Eastern Europe. Meest is sending military and medical items to Ukraine and to areas of Poland and Romania that border Ukraine as well.
Jaresko said this war is beyond political partisanship, and he asks where humanity's tolerance for peace is.
“This is not only about Ukraine or politics; it's truly a question of human decency,” Jaresko said. “When you bomb maternity wards and hospitals and civilian buildings, it's past the point of being human.”
Bloomingdale Court collection point
A donation drop-off site for the Ukrainian relief effort is being established at Bloomingdale Court, 366 W. Army Trail Road, Suite 340, next to Fruitful Yield and across from Jo-Ann Fabrics.
Prioritized donations are nonperishable food, clothes and shoes, thermal underwear, blankets, first-aid kits, sleeping bags, containers for liquids, and hygiene products such as diapers and toothpaste,.
The drop-off is open from 5 to 7 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.