By David Fleet
Editor
Krakow — Boyd Byelich is making a difference, one box at a time.
The 59 year-old former Ortonville resident has grasp the opportunity to assist those in need a world away caught in the cross fire of the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian War. Byelich has joined the battle in support of the refugees and children suffering from the aftermath of the year-long Eastern Europe war.
It was boots on the ground for Byelich.
Byelich’s response came after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, producing Eastern-Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. According to news sources, eight million Ukrainians were displaced by June 2022 and more than eight million had left their country by February 2022. Blyelich had personal health issues to overcome.
“About a year-and-half before the war started my health had not been good,” he said. “There was not much the doctors could help me with, even experts from the Mayo Clinic, UM and other cancer centers. I was in bad shape with a bleak outlook.”
In December 2021 his health miraculously changed.
“I started improving,” he recalled. “And no one, including many doctors could explain this. I’m a prayerful man and I felt like I was being prepared for something. So, by February 2022 I was just so sure something was coming for me. At that point I had no clue what that was.”
“About a week into the war I was watching the refugees on television and it just hit me,” said Byelich, a Roger City resident. “I just knew, I’m supposed to go help these people somewhere, somehow. So, I turned every rock over I could and it took three weeks for me to connect with a group over there.”
Byelich made contact with a refugee center in Krakow, Poland.
“I’m Polish but honestly a trip to Poland was not on my bucket list,” said Byelich, a career U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who works with area farmers. “There’s lots of places but Poland was not one of them.”
Byelich booked a flight to leave Michigan on April 15 and return two weeks later.
“I arrived on Easter Weekend and nothing was open except a food station,” he recalled
So the first few days in Poland, Byelich cooked in a World Center Kitchen, where hundreds of daily meals are distributed to the thousands of Ukrainians leaving their country.
“They suggested that since I’m American’s I was good at grilling, so I cooked Kielbasa sausages for three days at the kitchen,” he said. “I also started to hear the countless refugee stories from those in a nearby camp on the Poland boarder.”
Byelich did not understand a word of the Ukrainian language, but still managed to communicate.
“These people lost everything but remained proud of their country and absolutely convinced they would prevail over the Russians,” he said. “To this day I have never heard any doubt. They are defiant, determined people, always smiling and very thankful for the help.”
During Byelich’s first trip he helped distribute more than 9,000 items to 1,100 refugees each day.
Byelich returned to Michigan but the desire to help continued. Over the next few months he reached out to churches and who ever would listen. The grass-roots message prompted an overwhelming response.
“That’s how we started ‘One Box For Ukraine’ was started,” he said. “We found a shipping company in Troy that would ship directly to Poland. I could guarantee the clothes along with other items would get there.”
Clothing has been collected and shipped every two weeks since May 2022, and that continues today.
With his own funds, Blyelich returned to Eastern Europe to help.
Toys were also collected in October and November to take to displaced children in Ukraine at Christmas. They were sent and stored in Krakow until his arrival in mid-December. Byelich also connected with two refugee coordinators inside Ukraine and made plans to take toys and winter clothes to displaced children there.
On Dec. 21, Byelich made his first trip into Ukraine and the war torn cities of Vinnytsya and the Capitol City of Kyiv.
“We loaded the truck with boxes of toys and winter coats and arrived in Vinnytsya just in time for a blackout and unloaded the truck in the dark. Many of the residents are living in temporary wooden 6 feet-by-12 feet wooden boxes with two bunk beds inside.”
The third trip inside Ukraine came over the holidays with several staff from Poland’s largest newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza.
“We went across Ukraine to Odesa on the Black Sea, and then to Kherson and several villages with food, and toys for kids,” he said. “The body armor and helmets are necessary when in artillery range, and we were less than a mile from the Russian lines across the Dnieper River several times that week.
More than 200 kids in Ukraine had a Christmas and I got to be the lucky guy handing out the gifts.”
“It’s hard to express the emotions,” he said. “The kids were thrilled and their moms’ too. They thought I really was Santa Claus in a Lake Superior State sweatshirt.”
Toys were also taken by other aid workers to an orphanage and home for special needs children, he said.
“The needs are still huge, we hear about the refugees that left, many have been displaced within the county, they need everything. I started sending clothes, medical supplies, trench candles, flashlights, lighting is a need, books in English, school supplies.
“Yarn is sent to several refugee centers in Krakow where they are knitting socks for the army, and school supplies to several schools in Ukraine, as well as books and magazines to help them learn English,” he added.
“It’s also important to me that you know that literally every cent that is donated to One Box for Ukraine is used to purchase needed items or for shipping and transportation to get the goods to the people,” he said. ‘I pay all my travel expenses as part of my contribution.”
Facebook “One Box for Ukraine” or email boydboydbyelych@gmail.com