PHILADELPHIA – Since Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine on February 24, members of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization in the U.S.A. have focused much of their activity on raising money and gathering supplies for humanitarian relief in the war-torn country.
Now, as part of their ongoing fundraising effort, Plast recently announced that Katrusia Wolowodiuk, a senior scout and member of the organization’s Verkhovynky sorority, will match all donations made by September 15 to the group’s humanitarian aid fund up to $500,000.
That matching gift program is just one of many ways the organization has sought to help the people of Ukraine. According to Plast U.S.A. officials, the organization has raised more than $10 million for various humanitarian relief efforts since Russia launched its brutal full-scale war on Ukraine in late February.
In cooperation with the non-profit organization Americares, a provider of medicines and medical supplies, Plast U.S.A. facilitated the donation of two pallets of prescription medications to Ukraine valued at over $2 million.
In California, Plast members learned that the state’s National Guard and Office of Emergency Services had five surplus 50-bed mobile field hospitals. Capitalizing on their connections within those two state organizations, Plast members secured letters of need from officials in Kyiv that resulted in the shipment of those surplus field hospitals to Ukraine.
The relationship between California’s National Guard and the Armed Forces of Ukraine goes back more than 30 years. Members of the National Guard have been training members of Ukraine’s military since 1991 through a U.S. Defense Department partnership. The California National Guard has been deployed to Ukraine dozens of times over the past 30 years, and many Guard members have grown close to their military counterparts and their families in the country.
Another Plast member donated his pickup truck, and the organization procured spare tires and rims as well as additional spare parts for oil changes. The vehicle was painted a dark color and shipped to Plast in Ukraine for local logistics use. This project has now been expanded to other Plast branches in the country, and multiple utility vehicles have been purchased and are in the process of being shipped to Ukraine.
Plast to date has raised over $850,000 in monetary donations. The organization has created PayPal, GoFundMe and Venmo accounts with Plast members, as well as corporations and foundations, all making various tax-deductible donations.
The National Football League’s New York Jets donated $100,000 to the Plast humanitarian relief fund. The donation was secured as a result of the connection on Plast member had with the football team.
The Shipley Foundation contributed $100,000 after a Plast member with close ties to the organization personally appealed for help. She also was instrumental in securing a $50,000 donation by JSR Micro, which also created a matching donation program for their company’s employees. To date, that matching program has raised more than $25,000 for the Plast humanitarian relief fund.
In May, Plast also held a “Plastuny-In-Action” program that raised over $50,000. Plast scouts cycled, ran triathlons, held bake sales, coordinated fundraisers at restaurants and coordinated multiple other fundraising drives.
Combined, these donations allowed Plast to provide critical medical equipment and supplies, including external fixators, wound vacuum-assisted closure devices, ultrasounds with associated iPads, and other life-saving equipment to hospitals in Ukraine. Plast also supported families of wounded or killed Plast members, and the organization will pay to bring 1,027 Plast scouts in Ukraine to various summer camps throughout Europe.
Together in partnership with various non-governmental organizations in Ukraine, Plast U.S.A. helped launch the website Ukraine911.org, which includes a list of medical equipment and supplies that are urgently needed in Ukraine. Through that website, individuals can see donate money for those items, which are purchased directly from manufacturers at a 30-75 percent discount.
Plast then coordinates the transport and distribution of the purchased medical supplies through multiple secure transport routes. Ukraine911.org’s partners include the United National Women’s League of America (UNWLA), the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA), Paul Chester Children’s Hope Foundation (PCCHF), Razom for Ukraine, and Nova Ukraine, among others. A full list of partner organizations can be found at Ukraine911.org.
And Ukrainian scouts of all ages across the United States have been assembling Pocket First Aid Kits (PFAKs) as a way of contributing to the humanitarian aid effort. PFAKs, which contain 10 first aid items vacuum sealed in a pouch small enough to carry in a pocket, are designed to be lightweight and easily usable by anyone administering emergency care.
The assembly of PFAKs quickly spread past the Plast community to members of the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of America, as well as Plast members’ places of employment and schools. These combined efforts enabled the packaging and shipment of over 68,000 PFAKs to Ukraine.
To learn more about Plast’s efforts to provide support and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, readers may visit the websites aid.plastusa.org and Ukraine911.org. Readers who have questions may email Plast officials at scoutsforukraine@plastusa.org.