Milton, NY, Wednesday March 16, 2022
Dear Ukraine Donors,
Ninety individuals and five organizations/businesses have donated a total of $14,068.00 over the past two weeks! From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you very much for your generosity.
What started with a birthday invitation received in the beginning of Feb from a friend of mine in Berlin quickly mushroomed into an all out fund raising. It was clear to me that there was no time to try to figure out how to get this done fast. Facebook, my mailing list, the local Fire dept., Rotary Int’l in Highland, and the two Presbyterian churches in Highland and Marlboro that my wife Patricia works for and a local chapter of P.E.O., to which my wife belongs, all got the message loud and clear: I am off to Berlin, funds are needed, my good friends there have located a Ukrainian help organization, and I am in contact with Rotary, Warsaw, Poland.
Thousands upon thousands of Ukrainians, primarily mothers with children and grandparents were flooding into Berlin every day, primarily by train, and the local Germans and their helping organizations simply were overwhelmed.
On March 04 straight from the airport to the Ukraine Berlin-Hilfe e.V. A list of food, supplies, and medicine was handed to us and off we went to the local stores and pharmacy. My friend’s wife is a surgical nurse and has an excellent knowledge of medicine (and we even secured medicine that requires a prescription – and a 20% discount!). This was all loaded into a huge truck that left that night (Mar 04). A courageous driver made it all the way to Kyiv! Every day since then four vans (UPS like) have been going like pendulums between Berlin and the Polish border and Lviv with supplies.
Being on location (the huge Main Train Station, Hauptbahnhof) and witnessing the arrivals and departures of the Ukrainians made such an impression on me that I decided to push on with more fundraising. Also, I ran into six Rotarian’s from Helmstedt (a small town in mid-Germany) dressed in yellow vests. We had a quick talk and immediately knew what to do. Help them with their initial three busses (147 pass.) taking Ukrainians to their home town. They have since sent several busses to the Slovak/Ukrainian border and found housing for the refugees in central Germany.
Rotary, Warsaw, Poland being very close to Ukraine is providing much needed food and supplies and meeting special needs for mothers and babies.
Thank you all for sympathizing with the needs of these millions of people and for helping the organizations that are so close to where the Ukrainians can get the feeling of freedom and kindness. I just wish that the US and Canada somehow could reach out as well with transportation to these shores since this clearly is not just a European problem.
Today we spent another Euro2,000 ($2,190) on medicine and another $2,810 went to purchase (partial list):
- External fixator with carbon fiber rods
- T-handle
- Vacuum assisted closure
- K-Wires
- Antibiotic cement
- Surgical Drill Systems
- LCP for different anatomical segments: clavicle, shoulder, forearm, wrist, pelvis, hip, femur, tibia, fibula, foot)
- Nails for shoulder, femur (proximal part and shaft), tibia
All of this, plus medicine, today went to the General Hospital in Lviv, Ukraine.
It is still easy to cross the border to Lviv even though some facilities around Lviv have been bombed. All done through Ukraine Berlin-Hilfe e.V. In Berlin.
Fortunately, Steven and Maren in Berlin threw in another $1,000 to make this all happen.
$4,000 will be sent to Rotary in Helmstedt and $3,000 to Rotary, Warsaw. These numbers are way more than I expected when we first started out with this fundraising!
We will continue the work. The needs are almost endless, but with so many good and understanding people we can make these small streams into one big river.
Your trust in me to do this is such a great honor and places on me a responsibility for the funds to go directly to where they are needed without admin or wage costs. At 18 I joined my parents in the National Guard, spent six years in the Royal Danish Air Force, went through the mobilization when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia and subsequently have traveled throughout the world and seen poverty and misery. It hardens your skin and opens your heart. May you all travel, see the world and with your own eyes observe and learn.
The fund raising will continue. I am no expert on this and am eager to hear from you with ideas and suggestions so we may help as many people as possible.
Thank you and “Slava Ukraini!”.
BJ Mikkelsen
Cell: 917 282 2305
PayPal: bj@greatdanejourneys.com
Mailing address: 300 Willow Tree Rd., Milton, NY 12547
If you didn’t watch president Zelensky’s speech to Congress this morning, please find on the internet.
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