Scrantonians' efforts send over $250,000 in medical supplies to Ukraine

Yahoo

04-03-2025

St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Church asked for adult cold medicine, children's melatonin and vitamins for Ukraine.
A year later, just a week following of the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine, the church is involved in a global initiative to send over $250,000 worth of medical supplies in a shipping container leaving from Louisville, Kentucky.
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Fr. Myron Myronyuk has conversation in a conference room in the Urban Co-works office in Scranton Monday, March 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Fr. Myron Myronyuk holds up a flag in support of Ukraine in a conference room in the Urban Co-works office in Scranton Monday, March 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Fr. Myron Myronyuk blesses the goods being sent to Ukraine in a conference room in the Urban Co-works office in Scranton Monday, March 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Fr. Myron Myronyuk applauds during a Zoom meeting in a conference room in the Urban Co-works office in Scranton Monday, March 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Joe Riccardo, of the Rotary Club of Scranton, hosts a Zoom meeting with supporters in a conference room of the Urban Co-works offices in Scranton Monday, March 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Alex Groysman, of the organization Scranton for Ukraine listens to a Zoom meeting with Ukrainian supporters in a conference room of the Urban Co-works offices in Scranton Monday, March 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Fr. Myron Myronyuk has conversation in a conference room in the Urban Co-works office in Scranton Monday, March 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The timing is important, following a tense White House meeting between Ukraine's president Vladimir Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday. The meeting erupted into a bickering match over Ukraine's war with Russia, leaving the future of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia uncertain. A barrage of missiles attacked Dnipro on Monday, making the medical supplies even more valuable.
The Rev. Myron Myronyuk at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Scranton. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO)
The Dnipro region has come under heavy bombardment by both drones and missiles, reported Joe Riccardo, of Scranton. Riccardo serves on the International Service Committee of the Scranton Rotary Club, who were instrumental in the donation project. They purchased the humanitarian items by 'holding a series of fundraisers during the past year,' and additionally utilizing 'matching grants.'
'This'll go to hospitals that service children and their families that are affected by the war,' said Riccardo.
The container's next stop will be New York City, followed by Warsaw, Poland, where it will be driven on to the Dnipropetrovsk, in Southeast Ukraine by volunteers.
Monday, Pastor Myron Myronyuk of St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Church and a small assembly of people involved in the project gathered in Scranton to prepare the container for its voyage with a blessing.
'Send down your Holy Spirit with a blessing from above,' Myronyuk asked of his God at Urban Co-Works on North Washington Avenue in Scranton. A small group who gathered in Louisville, watched and participated virtually over Zoom.
FILE – President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York before his return to the White House. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
Among the Louisville contingent were the Rev. Benjamin Hart, the rector at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in the Anchorage area of Louisville, Kentucky, whose parish was instrumental in the donation efforts, sending thousands to help secure the medical supplies.
'With one passing of the plate, our church gave $8,000,' Hart said. He also blessed the container, alongside Pastor Myronyuk.
'Thank you for these resources you've given us and for the groups that made the sending of these medical supplies possible,' Hart said. 'Today we ask a special blessing over these medical supplies.'
Myronyuk feels the hardship of his fellow Ukrainians.
'War takes the best of the nation, strongest guys,' he said. 'These children will never see their daddy who was a hero.'
Myronyuk recently lost a friend who was a solider in special forces in Ukraine, and said 'It happens every day.' His own brother relocated to America from the Ukraine after over a year of the war.
'He's safe, he's in America,' Myronyuk said, adding that he is 'keeping in touch every day with his soldiers, and trying to help as much as he can.'
Riccardo said the children in the hospitals there 'need their spirits lifted,' so they are additionally sending teddy bears that have get well cards attached to them, made by students at Howard Gardner Multiple Intelligence Charter School, led by their teacher, Zlata Korniichuk, who came to the United States from Ukraine shortly after the war started there, Riccardo explained.
'We stand with you,' and 'you are in my thoughts,' are among the messages that sit in the container, attached to 200 bears, written by students in the Cyrillic alphabet.
'This has really been a global project,' Riccardo added, citing help received from a sister Rotary Club in Heerlen, in the Netherlands, who sent $5,000 Euro for the medical supply securement.
The medical equipment and supplies were purchased from an international humanitarian organization that secures 'gently used' medical equipment, at discount prices, from hospitals in the U.S. and ships the equipment to underdeveloped and war-torn countries.
Scranton-based humanitarian efforts will continue, with ultrasound machines about to be purchased, which will join the supplies about to leave for Ukraine. The container was scheduled to leave Monday, but has been postponed for a week, due to logistical complications.
Riccardo has some concerns that the container may be intercepted or not allowed to leave port, and hopes that the efforts of the many involved will not be stymied.
'We're ordinary people, just trying to do our best,' he said.