Local organized humanitarian container to Ukraine, makes waves

BONNERS FERRY — A local humanitarian effort to send basic amenities to the front lines of Ukraine has seen success with donations coming in and businesses offering to be drop locations for supplies.

This effort is being organized by Hope House of Boundary County, Bonners Ferry Rotary Club and Boulder Creek Retreat.

Organizers are looking for donations of clothing, bedding, health and sanitation products, children’s toys and especially first aid supplies.

“Our mission is to find suitable locations for drop boxes that will be used to collect humanitarian supplies for Ukraine in late August,” Seth Kinkade, one of the organizers, told the Herald. “Hope House and Rotary are jointly sponsoring a container of much-needed supplies to be sent to the front-line region of the Ukraine war, as well as the villages that have been severely affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.”

The supplies will be shipped to Kherson, Ukraine, in September. Currently, Kherson residents live under constant artillery shelling, flooding from the destruction of the local dam, and extensive mining of fields and roads. Schools, shopping centers, homes and hospitals have been destroyed, leaving residents without clothing, supplies and food.

Local organizers have partnered with Kherson Rotary Club, Eurasia Grain and the Mennonite Agro Capital Management groups in Ukraine, who will directly distribute these items and assist residents and small farmers in the Kherson region by providing necessities for residents caught in the crossfire.

In 2005, a farmer from Kinkade’s church organized community support for people in Kherson, Ukraine, by leasing and managing farmland, sending groups to Ukraine during the summer to host a community vacation Bible school, and sending an annual humanitarian container to the community.

“That support stopped by 2014 after the initial Russian invasion,” Kinkade said. “Since then, the community has been hit terribly as they are on the front lines of the East/West war. The reservoir they relied on for irrigation has been emptied, the fields mined, the homes flooded, and their businesses shelled.”

“To aid small farmers seeking storage and alternative markets for their grain, I am working to establish an agricultural coop in Southern Ukraine. I contacted my local Bonners Ferry Rotary Club for help working with the Kherson Rotary Club,” he said.

Hope House of Boundary County, Bonners Ferry Rotary Club and Boulder Creek Retreat are looking to partner with other rotary clubs and community groups and organizations to make this humanitarian container to Kherson a reality.

Donations can be dropped at Safeway, the Church of Latter-day Saints on Alderson Lane, Kootenai River Brewing Company, Riverside Auto, Family Flooring, El Internet and the Bonners Ferry Herald.

On Saturday Sept. 2, organizers and community members will load the container at the former Boulder Creek Academy, 174 Emerson Lane, Bonners Ferry. Once the container is full, organizers invite volunteers to fellowship over food, volleyball, basketball and frisbee golf.

The cost of shipping supplies is estimated at $8,000. Organizers are still taking donations. Write check to: Hope House, 1283 Homestead Loop, Bonners Ferry, ID 83805.

Seth Kinkade can be reached at 831-917-9525 or pgkinkade@gmail.com; and Eli Pine can be reached at 208-946-9947 or elipine.116@gmail.com.