With Giving Spirit, Melrose Answers Ukraine's Call For Help

MELROSE, MA — Alona Paladi wasn't expecting all of this.

The Malden and former Melrose resident reached out to Melrose City Hall after the mayor changed his photo to two Ukrainian children saluting troops. For Paul Brodeur, it was a small show of solidarity with the besieged nation some 4,500 miles across the globe.

It's the place Paladi called home before moving to America eight years ago. Her hope was to see if her new home could help rally support for her old one.

The city called out for residents to help.

Whether it was the dozens of people bringing in medical supplies, or the one woman who showed up with $3,000 worth in her car, or the YMCA dropping off 30,000 gloves, or MelroseWakefield Hospital giving boxes of material, it's safe to say the call was answered.

It's difficult to put a number on what the small group of people at City Hall helped load onto a moving truck Thursday morning, except to say it's a good thing Brad Hutchinson Real Estate donated its moving truck and not a pickup truck, because even the moving truck wasn't enough for everything.

"This is a great thing to do and something that we can all kind of rally around," Brodeur said. "There's been a lot of contentious stuff. This is not that. This is something that everyone can get. Anyone who's got kids, anyone who's got a service member in their family, they can all get this, they can all wrap their heads around it.

"People responded," Brodeur said as another cart of supplies wheeled past him. "They responded unbelievably."

Chernivtsi is more than 300 miles away from Kyiv. Sirens blare, but given its close proximity to NATO member Romania, it hasn't been subject to the kind of attacks that have been filling up news feeds.

Being roughly 20 miles from the Romanian border has another benefit: Ukrainians can cross and return with supplies.

Chernivtsi is where Paladi has friends and family helping with donations logistics, supporting refugees and children. There's currently an urgent need for baby formula, a volunteer told Paladi before she arrived to City Hall.

Paladi has started a personal fundraising effort for those in her home country. Her focus right now is on the children of the war, the ones whose fathers are staying back to defend their country, the ones so traumatized they won't even talk to those trying to help them.

The volunteer Paladi sent money to Thursday was spending it on crayons and paper "so they can draw, at least."

The needs are endless.

"Every help is welcome and important," she said.

The City Hall shipment is being handled by Sunflower for Peace, which started helping Ukrainians afflicted by violence in 2015. The moving truck headed to Malden, where donations were to be sorted before flying out of Logan.

The war has kicked Sunflower for Peace into another gear. The Boston-based nonprofit, which has helped Ukrainians afflicted by violence since 2015, is focusing fundraising efforts on providing medical supplies to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.

Sunflower for Peace provides a way for people thousands of miles away to directly help those impacted most by the brutal conflict. The nonprofit hosts an Amazon wishlist constantly being updated by volunteers in Ukraine based on current needs.

Leah Wagner was adamant she wasn't doing much. She answered an online call from someone she didn't know to help load the truck, which took 15 or so minutes. Nothing was too heavy. Her daughter came from Boston College to lend an additional hand.

"How could I not help?" Wagner said.

A lot of people probably thought they weren't doing much when they dropped off a box or two of gauze and aspirin. Brodeur probably thought changing his cover photo wouldn't help desperate volunteers in Ukraine. Paladi probably thought her request to City Hall wasn't going to fill up a moving truck.

The workers at the Stoneham Walgreens, the folks on the Cape, the kids from the school in Westford — none of them probably thought their donations were doing all that much, either.

Here's what everyone's small effort resulted in:

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi and Instagram at Melrose Happening. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.