PORTLAND, Oregon — At Threshold Brewing & Blending in Southeast Portland, people lined up Wednesday night, eager to raise money for Ukrainian refugees crossing into Poland. The brewery's owner is Polish and so is his friend, fundraiser organizer Iwona Erbe.
“It's very emotional for me to think of because for many centuries, Poland was Ukraine,” said Erbe. "All the battles, all the wars were always in Poland."
People came from all over to have a drink, donate or enter a raffle — including George Jankowski. He came to the U.S. from Poland more than 40 years ago.
“It's just the Ukrainian-Polish connection,” said Jankowski. “Anything I can chip in.”
Sheila Lipschutz, whose grandmother was born in Kyiv, brought both Ukrainian and Polish flags. She was anxious to do anything she could to help refugees.
“We may not all be able to go there and wear humanitarian boots on the ground,” said Lipschutz. “But from our corner of the world we can do and we can show what's in our heart and support people as best we can.”
And then there are the few who can put boots on the ground, like Hunter Baldridge, who grew up in Portland. He's now a graduate student in Spain. For the last week, Baldrige has been in Krakow, driving refugees across the Ukrainian border in a rental car. So far, he's taken about 30 people to safety. Each round trip takes about 5 hours, and he tries to do three every day.
“I would say emotionally it's been challenging,” said Baldridge, 23. “Two nights ago we transported a mom with her 2-month-old baby and her five-year-old daughter and she had a heavy bag with her and she was by herself … things that they've seen are things that I can't even fathom.”
Baldridge said most of the people helping along the border are volunteers from around the world. He wants more people to know what's happening there.
“You see on the news, you think the world's in solidarity with this and many countries have spoken out against the situation,” said Baldridge. “But on the ground, there is a lack of services and there is a serious need for actual serious disaster response here because this is a disaster."