A RELIEF mission left East Lancashire for the Ukrainian border yesterday (March 21) as drivers and organisers thanked donors for their ‘incredible generosity’.
Jon Baldwin, who represents the Ewood ward for Blackburn with Darwen Council, and wife Katrina, felt particularly compelled to help provide aid with Katrina’s family-ties to both Ukraine and Poland and seeing the war unfold on television.
Affected by what they had seen, the couple decided to plan a way of providing supplies for those fighting within Ukraine and those who have managed to flee to refugee camps. They titled the effort 'Blackburn with Darwen with Ukraine'.
Cllr Baldwin explained: “We were sat watching the news and I just kept thinking that this shouldn’t be happening and I wanted to help.
“My wife, Katrina, is of Ukrainian descent and her Grandad left Ukraine to settle in the United Kingdom after World War Two.
“We got chatting about how we could help and decided to concentrate on supplies for the people crossing the border into Poland.
“Within two days, we’d found a van and started collecting items. A day later, that one van had turned into two vans.
Warrington-based NRS provided the vans along with two employees, Giedrius Kriugzda and Vaidotas Paskauskas, who will be driving one of the vans to the Polish city Przemysl – while Cllr Jon Baldwin and Rick Moore, who is this years candidate for Mill Hill, will drive the other.
The Academy of Ideas and Simpson-Judge have helped fund the associated costs, such as the Eurotunnel, while a host of Blackburn with Darwen schools have been collecting and donating products to send over in the convoy.
Cllr Baldwin added: “Katrina has been in contact with charities over there and we’ve made arrangements to meet in Przemysl.
“I cannot thank all our friends enough for their support in terms of raising awareness of this collection and then coming together to organise, pack and then create the inventories for each van.
“It has been a real team effort.”
Katrina said: “We split ourselves in half really. John sorted the transport and the financial support and then I took lead on contacting schools to arrange collections.
“The two volunteer drivers are hoping to get to reach the border on Wednesday morning (March 23), taking essentials for children and mothers.
“It’s been an amazing effort and the last 48 hours have been chaotic trying to get everything together. I can’t thank everyone who has helped enough.”
The Blackburn with Darwen schools who have collected to items to send on the ‘Blackburn with Darwen with Ukraine’ relief mission are:
- Riverside Nursery
- St Paul's RC Primary School
- St Francis CE Primary School
- St Barnabas CE Primary Academy
- Ashleigh Primary School
- St Edwards Primary School
- Crosshill Special School
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