Supply drive created in support of Ukrainian refugees

Drop boxes for the Ukraine supply drive are placed in various locations around Hofstra’s campus including the Student Center. // Photo courtesy of Jacob Lewis.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, Feb. 24, leaving millions of Ukrainians displaced. To aid Ukrainian refugees, the Hofstra community came together to host a supply drive that started Monday, March 6. The drive gathered materials such as clothes, hygiene products and medical supplies. 

“You have to remember, the refugees, when they’re fleeing their homes, many times they don’t even have time to grab a bag,” said Scott Brinton, a special assistant professor of journalism, media studies and public relations and a faculty member working on the supply drive. “They’re just running away from shelling and five minutes later their home is no longer there. Wherever they arrive, they have nothing. They have no clothes. They have no toiletries. They have nothing.” 

Multiple supply drives are happening in tandem, run by student members of Theta Tau and the American Society of Civil Engineers and students and faculty in both the DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication (LHSC), according to an email sent by Student Affairs on Friday, March 11. 

Bohdan Fostakovskyy, a junior mechanical engineering major, and John Shafranski, a senior civil engineering major, organized a supply drive in connection to the Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church in Lindenhurst, New York. The pair would drop the supplies off at the church and the church would be responsible for the shipping arrangements. 

“We both have Ukrainian relatives living in Ukraine, and as it starts to unravel with Putin attacking, we couldn’t really just stand around and do nothing,” Shafranski said. “We thought that the best way that we could help is to start a fundraiser here at the school [and] try [to] get the Hofstra community to help us out and help the people in Ukraine.”

Fostakovskyy believes that regardless of how much is donated, an impact will be made.

“When you look at these smaller drives, I feel like it’s easy to say that not donating doesn’t really matter because it’s such a small scope, but I think anything helps,” Fostakovskyy said. 

Along with Brinton, Ivan Cardona, assistant professor of journalism, media studies and public relations and another faculty member working on the supply drive, is pleased by the support shown by the Hofstra community.

“Since we started it, even more people are voicing the same level of concerns and the same level of support [that] we originally had in mind,” Cardona said. “It has thankfully become an active conversation amongst our students and faculty, who I’m sure will mobilize even more people to help families in need.”

Brinton and Cardona are working with the Ukrainian Americans of Long Island, a local organization based out of St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hempstead.

“I met a few folks [in the] Ukrainian Americans of Long Island [group], and they are doing a collection every Wednesday night,” Brinton said. “So Ivan and I planned once we gather up materials that we collect here at the school, we’re going to simply bring them over to St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Catholic Church and they’re going to ship it to Ukraine.”

Drop boxes can be found placed around campus. Some locations include the Student Center, SEAS, LHSC, the public safety building and McEwan Hall. The supply drive will run past spring break and the end date will be decided depending on the state of the refugee crisis, according to Shafranski and Cardona. If anyone has any questions or wants to join the initiative, you can contact Ukraine.help.hofstra@gmail.com or johanna.farrell@hofstra.edu.