PLEASE HELP THE UKRAINIANS

We previously raised over $17,000 on a Go Fund Me page and are going to continue to use this page to raise more money so we can send a larger portion of what is generated back to the causes that are helping the Ukrainians. Let’s keep the support going!”

Now, I am going to personally match $.25 for each dollar raised, up to $5,000!

Hello! My name is Chris Rogala and I am the President of Office Space Chicago, Inc.

The war in Ukraine is driving me crazy. It’s making me feel sad, angry and helpless. In this day and age I can’t understand how ONE MAN has this much power and insanity to scare the rest of the world into submission to secure his own personal agenda. I, like many of you, listen to the news and am horrified by what I see and hear. Mostly I feel for the families being broken apart every day. For the kids. For the husband or wife that runs off to fight while the rest of the family flees their own country.

One day I was in my car listening to the radio about continued atrocities being committed by Russian forces and thought to myself, “I’ve had it! I need to DO something about this!” It was the last straw for me.

I have always been involved in charity work, mostly raising money for charities. This time I wanted to physically help, so I started a GoFundMe page to raise money – not for my actual trip to Poland and Ukraine but for supplies I wanted to purchase there to help the refugees (travel, food and sleeping arrangements were all paid for by me directly). I raised over $17,000 from over 120 GENEROUS PEOPLE and went to work.

I found a charity group out of the United Kingdom called Siobhan’s Trust via an article that I read https://www.euronews.com/2022/03/12/volunteers-travel-to-poland-to-help-ukraine-refugees . They have been providing meals, hot drinks, clothes, and warmth to Ukrainians since March 8th https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-hand-out-pizzas-ukraine-26483559 . They told me they could use the help so I flew to Krakow Poland, rented the biggest SUV they had and drove to the small border town of Medyka at the border with Ukraine. I had absolutely no idea what to expect when I got there. I started by stopping at a large grocery store about 2 hours from the border to buy whatever I could think of that the Ukrainian refugees might need; food, water, sanitary products, diapers, stuffed animals/toys, batteries, pet food, etc. and packed the SUV.

When I arrived at Medyka and after trying in broken Polish to assure the police that I was there to help, I parked my car and walked into the popup camp looking for the tent occupied by Siobhan’s Trust. I met Harry, who is the son of Siobhan, his mother who passed away suddenly a few years ago. Harry decided to continue his Mother’s charitable nature by starting this charity in her name. For the time being, Siobhan’s Trust has suspended all money and activity from other ventures and are focusing solely on the refugees at this particular border crossing (out of the seven crossings on the Polish/Ukraine border).

Because there were others there donating their time and because I had raised so much money, I took it upon myself to spend my mornings and afternoons, driving to various towns as close as 30-minutes away and as far as 2-hours away to get supplies, driving back to our base camp and heading out again to purchase more. Grocery stores in particular have been mostly empty this close to the border, hence the long drives to get the food and supplies we needed. I typically took along a Polish speaking friend to help communicate, save time, etc.

Closer to the end of MY day (at Siobhan’s Trust we worked 24/7), I would stay to help how I could, handing out food our cooks were cooking, handing stuffed animals to scared children, helping people find the busses that would take them to a train station and from there, hopefully to a destination where they were safe, warm and cared for. Very few men came across the border because most were conscripted to fight the Russians so we were mostly helping mothers with their children and the elderly. I saw people come over injured, shell shocked, weeping, stunned and some happy to be safe. Some didn’t want our help or our food. I think many were too proud to accept handouts, but I learned quickly if you smiled, joked, begged (I even got down on my knees in front of a family while I offered them pizza – this went over well, they finally laughed and accepted our help) that would get us much farther in helping them.

As the days went by, the tents got more organized and instead of every tent offering a bit of everything, we decided to divide and conquer. Because we had some amazing chef’s from literally all over the world, we were tasked with cooking and serving food (among other tents). Directly across from us was a tent specifically designed to help animals and pets, both with veterinarians and pet food! Next to them was a tent specifically for toiletries, and so on. There was one small table set up with two great people I became close with. They called themselves “Team Banana” and all they handed out were bananas and umbrellas! They were great, and the two of them stood in the freezing cold, day after day for 12-16 hours a day handing out these two items. It turns out that bananas are a favorite food of Ukrainians and the umbrellas went fast due to the just above freezing temperatures and the nice steady flow of rain.

One day I went into Ukraine to deliver food to another tent we had set up inside the Ukrainian border. The queue to get from Ukraine to Poland was very long, sometimes people waiting 8-hours on foot to cross over (the foot traffic across the border outnumbered the cars probably 50-1 in my estimate. Our group would serve warm soup and coffee to the people waiting. We even did our best to provide chairs and benches for families to rest while they waited. Many didn’t have their passports because they had to leave so quickly. In addition, there were typically only 2-3 border guards checking people in and they didn’t seem to be in any hurry to do so.

I have posted some pictures and videos and will post more in the coming weeks. My plan is to raise more money and return to the border to help more.

As such, I have set up a way for continued donations. I am returning in June and going straight to Ukraine where the same group is providing food directly to those in need.  As before, I will use this money, to purchase food and goods for those in need. Please strongly consider how fortunate we all are to have basic necessities like electricity and heat, easy access to food and water. These are good people doing great work and I want to continue to directly help these unfortunate people caught up in this meaningless war.

In addition, I am going to personally match $.25 for each dollar raised, up to $5,000! If you don’t donate here, please donate somewhere that you trust. There were people there taking advantage of the situation and we heard and saw attempts at thievery and even human trafficking.

It is an understatement to say that this money is needed. Please donate what you can and realize how lucky we are to live in this country! Thank you!

– Chris Rogala