Ukraine Refugee Assistance

Thanks Vikki!  You know, I actually hadn't heard Modern Talking until very recently.  I watched a documentary called "Afghan, The Soviet Experience" at it appeared there.  I thought it would be perfect for a video of the run and ran with it

Everyone,

I am WAAAAAY behind on this trip report, and I apologize.  I know it's been posted here (as well as on the DniproExpress website, and one other forum), but the social media pages take much longer (often only posting one or 2 updates a day).  I'm getting to the light at the end of the tunnel and should be caught up by this weekend.  The problem is, my access to a computer has been significantly diminished as my "old trusty" finally gave up the ghost.  It was a heavy-@ss dell laptop we purchased around 2009, but it's been "ol reliable" these past 15-years.  Luckily we purchased it's replacement about 3 years ago, and that's what I'm running with now but it's very much one computer for the whole family (and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon).

Going forward, I'm hoping to find my groove so things wont be so disrupted but right now I'm operating in "catch up/panic" mode.

Good times.

Good to hear my solar charge controllers ended up helping Bill! I'll poke around for smaller panels, but because of the nature of the beast (size, weight, shipping ect) it might be better to look more locally for used ones that people are getting rid of in an updating process and bring them along. I'm gonna learn some details about solar and see what sizes are good- I'm not sure if the PWMs I sent can take a open circuit voltage over 24 volts and just "fix" it to 12 volts and however many amps. If that ends up being the case, then we could hack together some basic supplementary power from like, solar panels for vent fans and the like, or ones for charging phones.

Hi everyone!!!

I hope you're doing well 

I've seen the latest news about hurricanes. It's terrible, people are almost helpless against the power of nature 

I hope you, your families, relatives and friends are safe and unharmed.

Praying for you and i really hope that Milton's power is going down.

Stay safe 

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Thanks Vikki!  You know, I actually hadn't heard Modern Talking until very recently.  I watched a documentary called "Afghan, The Soviet Experience" at it appeared there.  I thought it would be perfect for a video of the run and ran with it

Yeah!!! it's absolutely PERFECT!!! 

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Yaroslav's Armor Fund (Yahoo): $694.86 (it's a USD account).  Funds transfer has started, armor will be purchased and sent soon!!!  Moving our effort towards a new helmet.

and some good news  

although, of course, I'd prefer news like "The war is over and all the soldiers are coming home" 

I got the transfer and it gave us 26025.70 uah (634$). 

I talked Yaro about the type of  body armor he needed and finally we decided that he and i would add a little more money and we order the best of of possible. So it was the way we went 

We were able to order this  also additionally all ballistic protection that could be replaced by a higher class was replaced 

We did the best we could!!! MANY thanks to everyone who support this effort!!! 

It ended up costing(including delivery) 40934.50uah (ab. 970,55$) and it's already on its way to our brave pilot 

this is the new one we ordered 

this one Yaro is wearing now 

Have a good time everyone and stay safe!!!

GIRTHQUAKE said:

Good to hear my solar charge controllers ended up helping Bill! I'll poke around for smaller panels, but because of the nature of the beast (size, weight, shipping ect) it might be better to look more locally for used ones that people are getting rid of in an updating process and bring them along. I'm gonna learn some details about solar and see what sizes are good- I'm not sure if the PWMs I sent can take a open circuit voltage over 24 volts and just "fix" it to 12 volts and however many amps. If that ends up being the case, then we could hack together some basic supplementary power from like, solar panels for vent fans and the like, or ones for charging phones.

100% agree on shopping locally (or even inside Ukraine iteself!) for solar panels.  Definitely something that would be SUPER spendy to ship.

Regarding the charge controllers you sent, man I gotta say I was pretty impressed.  I've been a bit busy lately and haven't had a chance to hammer out a message but I put that controller/panel combo on that Optima and it took that thing from 4vdc to 13+vdc.  Now, we've all heard my complaints about that Optima, but I still ran it anyway as I figured "something is better than nothing"  (the charge your panel put on it ran the compressor fridge overnight, so that's gotta be something).  I also told Vikki that if she had any troubles to change out the battery, not the other two parts.

A shame I couldn't put a DM amp meter on it, but alas.

I also mentioned sneaking one into young Yaroslav's package.  He's found me on Instagram and we've been in contact.  I told him it was on its way, and what to do with it.  He responded back that this was actually pretty darn helpful as he had just snagged a car battery in good condition and was looking at making his household a powerbank setup out of it.  All he needs to do now is find a suitable solar panel, and I think the rest is WELL within his abilities.  The rest are at Vikki's house now, and we can shoot those out to any parties who express a need, I think.

All in all, I think those little guys are going to do a LOT of good.

Also in the "good news" department, that shipment lubricated some hinges and I think some doors might have opened slightly.  There are two channels that might now be available to us for the occasional shipment of goods this way.  As we head into the cold season, if anyone wanted to lean forward on getting things over for our Christmas run (or even onto one of our cross-border excursions) just let me know.  I think we'll take things slow at first, and then gear up to previous levels of shipping ability.  On my end, I'm keeping things lubricated with syrups, jams, and other preserves from this summers harvest.

Good times

Ok, and my apologies to everyone for my absence.  I could not get into a groove with my current work/life balance and as I stated I was WAY behind on updates.  That has now changed as I've taken this entire week off of work to get caught back up, and "caught up" I almost am.  A big part of this was adding a "blog" to our website to keep people engaged and coming back (I didn't want the website looking like a place that was set up and then never used again).  I think adding the blog is another good way to keep people scrolling past our merch and hopefully that will mean a few more bucks going into Ukraine as a result.  You can view the blog page here:

https://dniproexpress.com/trip-reports?blog=y

Or go to the home page at www.DniproExpress.com and scroll down to the appropriate link, and click your way in.

It's all "copy/paste" from the forum (and even includes links to the appropriate pages in this thread) but there were so many formatting and other errors that it took me over 2-hours per post to edit (and there are still some spacing issues that I need to correct, but my poor brain just can not handle at this point in time), more than a few slideshows had to be created, and so on and so on.  Short story long, I've been at it since first thing Monday morning and my eyes and brain are absolutely fried.  I promise I'm not going to look at a single screen this entire weekend in an effort to recover.

Of course, spending all that time there, I haven't been able to post any updates here.  Let me fix at least part of that with Vikki's addition to our last delivery that she sent our way shortly after we left the country:

https://youtu.be/dtza3Rn8n7o

Other than that, I just wanted to thank Vikki and Girthquake and everyone for staying engaged and keeping this thread going while all that was happening in the background.  (Vikki.  I am STOKED that we were able to get Yaro the better set of armor.  Thank you both for boosting that fundraiser over the top!  Please tell him to stay safe out there!)

With that, I'm going to log back off for the weekend.  I need a beer or two to massage my poor brain

See you guys on Monday for our usual updates!

Cheers everyone!  And have a great weekend!

Here's our Monday Update!

Current Paypal Balances:

Mothers and Babies Fund (Gmail):  Currently $0

Yaroslav'sBody Armor fund (Yahoo): $634 was the total after PP fees and bank exchange rate when wired to Vikki.  Vikki and Yaro added to that pot and purchased a set of body armor valued at over $900!  (woot!)

Dr. Julia's EKG fund (as organized by Katie):  Total raised was over $1800, and is sitting in my account as we speak.  I have an appointment to talk to our doctor this evening so hopefully that will mean an EKG will be in our hands here shortly!  Estimated cost is only $1000, so the rest of the funds will be wired to Vikki in Dnipro to purchase medicine or medical supplies for Dr. Julia!

GoFundMe is closed and will open for our Christmas run.

Also for sharing are our social media links:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/510575651154518

https://www.instagram.com/dniproexpress/

And our very own website:

www.DniproExpress.com

Cheers everyone!

-Bill

More importantly:

We got a message back from one of the mothers.

On the last run there was a child looking for “anti chaffing clothing” for jiu jitsu. I wrote that I had spent quite a bit of time looking for a set, but found none readily available and instead ordered a set of sparring pads instead.

Well… It turns out, that was a good decision on our part because Damir (Age 7, from Dnipro) won his tournament!

His mom wrote that the pads (especially the head gear) was SUPER helpful in getting him ready to spar.

Here’s the photo we initially received back from the run for reference:

Oh!  Before "last but not least"  please don't forget that we have two potential channels open for shipping.  PM me for details~!

Ok, last but not least.

When I was in the military my mom used to send me a big box on Christmas if I was deployed (happened twice).  Inside would be one of those big cheese/cracker/sausage gift boxes that they used to sell in the malls, along with all sorts of other goodies like candy, gag gifts like rubber chickens, a couple of CDs (this would be slightly pre MP3 player)...  That sort of thing

It was always a huge hit for the guys in my squadron.  We'd open it and it'd be a darn good make-shift feast/party.  I mean it really doesn't take much when you've been away for 6 or 8 months to break the monotony.  A lot of the times the gag gifts would be hung in the shop as just a bit of decoration that wasn't "standard issue military" (if you know what I mean). 

I digress.

Vikki and I were trying to think of what we could do now that these shipping channels were open to do the same for Yaro, Dr. Julia, and all the people in their unit.  I know there's things these guys need (drones, medical supplies, etc) but I was thinking that maybe instead of all of us trying to pool our cash together that we maybe make a GIGANTIC care package for them instead.  Something with food that isn't an MRE, music that isn't one of the three playlists that you know are being played over and over and over, or just something to lift their spirits a bit while they're stuck in the E36 M3 for the winter and possibly the holidays?

We're going to talk to them first and see if this can be done.  If it can, then we wanted to gauge interest early and see what y'alls thoughts were and to see if we had enough support to go forward.  We do know it's early, but figure we could use that time to ease the financial burden on ourselves a bit.

Everyone:  We got an EKG!!!!!!

As mentioned, Katie's fundraiser was a wonderful success.  We have over $760 left over to send to Dr. Julia (of the 3rd Assault Brigade Variety) and Vikki in Dnipro is reporting to have found a screaming deal on CAT (Gen 7) tourniquets.  The transfer is already started and boy-HOWDY does it seem like it's taking FOREVER!

A huge selling point for this particular unit is it's ability to communicate with a broad number of electronic devices (wireless) to provide a display, meaning consumables don't have to be shipped into theater for its continued operation.  Knowing this, Dr. Attila (pictured) insisted in buying extra paper to install into the machine to give the unit printing capability for as long as he thought he could provide.  Earlier this week he tested it out and was happy to report that everything was working 4.0

On the flip side, we're working to drive this into country  ASAFP.  Unfortunately, at this VERY moment I'm being called back to Ramstein for 28 days on an "emergency backfill".  I don't know yet how we're going to turn this into a win, but we ain't lost yet so stay tuned   \m/

(oh.  On cue?  Razo from Ramstein wrote.  He's got a buddy with supplies but no vehicle.  Razo was going to lend him one, but could we help the driver with the nuances of getting into country?  we sure can)

Hi everyone!!! I hope you're doing well 

I'm determined to write my part of the trip story 

Let’s get prepared

As you may have noticed earlier the preparation for each trips starts long before the date of the trip is set and for Vikki that means lots and lots of talking and texting with the kids' moms.

Bill and I talked a bit and decided that for this trip, in addition to school supplies, baby food, and diapers, it would be a great idea to support the kids' hobbies and activities.

And now, I can definitely say it was a GREAT idea!!!

We got to know our kids even better and we have some very talented and passionate about their hobbies kids!!! and we definitely managed to make them a little happier!!!

Young programmer and IT, a lot of kids love drawing and they do it amazingly, a lot of kids like do sports and soccer, Harry Potter fan, chemistry experiments? Hmmm… why not? Our young genius Yaroslav who asked for radio parts and another guy who likes soldering too!!!

That’s AMAZING!!! Isn’t? Can we do it? Absolutely!!!

Next - we have two babies' birthdays. What does it mean? Yeah, I should order two B-day gifts to have them with me before the delivery date – Done!!! Ordered and picked up!!! 

Next – got a message from Bill – he asked if I could order the chemistry set in Ukraine? Of course, I can, no problem! Ordered and picked up!!! 

Somewhere in between all these tasks, I kept in mind that I needed to take a photo for the report 

Picked up the gifts - throw them in the trunk, need to take a photo.... it's too dark now, okay…tomorrow morning… maybe… 

Picked up the chemistry set - throw it in the trunk… ummm…. I need to take a photo… no time… a little later… maybe… 

Vikki was a little naive 

The closer we got to the meeting date, the more tasks we all had to do 

*spoiler – I finally took this photo 

to be continued... stay tuned and have a good week!!!

Hi guys!!! We have great news today!!!

We have over $760 left over to send to Dr. Julia (of the 3rd Assault Brigade Variety) and Vikki in Dnipro is reporting to have found a screaming deal on CAT (Gen 7) tourniquets.  The transfer is already started and boy-HOWDY does it seem like it's taking FOREVER!

Finally i got the transfer  and i'm already working on getting Dr.Julia everything she needs 

i'm waiting for an answer about tourniquets - we were offered a very good price and we need to check if they are still available - cross your fingers 

I talked to Dr.Julia about the necessary meds, she asked to add some cold and flu meds - it got colder and the guys started getting sick 

So I'm writing a list of meds to order and I'll send it to the pharmacy 

We(Bill, Sarah and i) also coordinate our efforts to get the EKG machine to our doctor as soon as possible 

So guys, cross your fingers and toes for success!!!

Thank you all!!!

and the continuation of the story 

We always find the best solutions!!!

We also had fearless Razo, who agreed to gather supplies and hit the road with Bill as well!

We planned to deliver all the stuff Razo would bring to the children's hospital we visited many times before.

When I got the message from Bill that Razo had collected 16 boxes full of baby supplies - baby food, diapers, wet wipes and other (ohhh, man, you’re cool!!! ) I texted to the hospital to ask if they need any of this stuff and got the answer – they have enough diapers and baby food and maybe this help would be more needed somewhere else, but they really need wet wipes.

Ummm… it means we need to find another place that needs help with baby supplies.

Ummm… well, we’ll find it, don’t worry!!!

So, a few phone calls to my friends and we have a new delivery point – it's also a children's hospital and they're very happy to have our support!!! Ohhh, guys, we'll be happy to support you and kids you help!!! 

But at the same time I couldn't get out of my head that Razo's supplies included wet wipes and I really wanted to support our previous hospital 

What could we do in this situation? Well, I had some thoughts – Bill, I need to talk to you about this immediately!!! 

The first way I was thinking about – all the wet wipes  from Razo’s boxes go to the previous hospital, the other stuff to the new hospital, which was not a good decision in our(Bill and me) opinion because the new hospital won't get any wipes at all… and we weren't happy with that 

So we decided to go the other way and we liked this decision better 

I still have some money left in Moms and kids fund – I ordered wet wipes for all the money I had – we got 28 big packs. If we add some from Razo’s boxes both hospitals will get roughly equal!!!  

The best solution!!!  Isn’t? 

Now the main thing was to have this order arrive on time by our meeting date because the meeting time was so close… uhhh… 

The day before the meeting date, I picked up the order on my lunchtime… yeah!!! we have these damn wipes!!! - throw it in the trunk… I should to take a photo… I need… omg… not now… a little later… tomorrow morning… maybe…

Tomorrow??? Morning??? Maybe??? Hey, my darling, tomorrow is the meeting day!!! 

Tomorrow is the meeting day... 

to be continued... 

Have a good time everyone!!! 

I love these updates, Vikki!  I'm so blind to all that's happening on your side of the border.  When this is done, we're going to need to go and carve our names into our favorite Novaposht, or slap a big sticker on the place or SOMETHING 

Morning everyone!  I just wanted to pop in real quick because Yaroslav got his body armor!!

Ok, well... we already knew that.  BUT the poor guy has been damn busy lately and couldn't get the time he needed to take pictures and photos (op-sec being important, such things have to be carefully made).  Yesterday, these arrived:

I wish I didn't have to edit those.  He's got a HUGE grin in that last photo.

Anyhoo.  I'm still in Germany and still looking for ways to turn this trip into a win.  I thought I had a line on two medical refrigerators (for a hospital to store medicine) but that line went cold.  There's a charity rally about an hour away from an org called Pickup4Ukraine (I know a volunteer that regularly drives vehicles in with them) so I thought about partaking in the festivities then.  Oh, Razo's driver backed out and wont be headed in as planned.  Sometimes it seems like lots of wheel spinning, but we're still looking for traction.

On the plus side I have a donor stateside that reached out about funding a couple power supplies for an American Legionaire headed back to his unit.  And a man in the UK reached out and expressed interest in funding a power supply for our December run so things ARE still happening (just not very fast). 

Ooh.  And we still have that EKG that needs to get in.

Alright, I think that's everything.  Like a good engine, "stay tuned"  

Hi guys!!! 

I have some updates i want to share with you all 

First, as i mention above 

tourniquets - we were offered a very good price and we need to check if they are still available

So we did it  15 CAT tourniquets(and some stuff - rubber gloves and cream - as a gift) went to Dr.Julia and she already got them  

That cost about 293$(12000uah) + shipping  good deal!!! i think 

Yesterday i got the photo from Dr.Julia with her colleague Olga  They are both grateful for this help!!!

The second one is we use the rest of the money to order meds for the brigade Dr.Julia serves in  

We have about 485$(19900uah) for that!!! and it would be a much-needed support!!!

The thing is her brigade is in one of the toughest areas right now 

The list of meds has sent to the pharmacy and yesterday we finally talked and approved the order with the pharmacy manager according to what Dr.Julia needs. So i'll pick up the meds on Monday and send them to her 

Aaaand the main news - the EKG machine is already on its way to Dr.Julia!!!  and it'll be in its destination on Monday.

Bill will tell us in more detail how it all went down. So we're waiting to hear more from him, but let me tell you all, it was incredible!!! 

Dr.Julia and her colleague Olga say - Thanks to everyone!!!

Thanks to Katie and her friends!!! 

Hey everyone, just popping in REAL quick.

Last Thursday, all my poking and prodding paid off.  I found out a fellow volunteer was hosting a charity concert in the area, and I drove over to see if I could assist.

I was a little worried at first, as they had hosted an event like this before and I didn't really know what I was REALLY doing to help, buuuuuuuuuuuut

It turns out that no one involved had ever worked a kitchen before!  One of my first jobs was as a dishwasher in a marina restaurant's kitchen (I'd later go on to cook.  Then, when I was in college, I'd wait tables and bartender a TGI Fridays but I digress).  There were about 80 people in attendance, and food was being served.  I saw the dirty dishes piling high and sprung into action and you would have never thought it, but my darn dish-washing abilities in a restaurant kitchen (something I was paid $5 an hour for) became my superpower!

I was going to bore you guys with a slide-show, but made a much longer video out of the experience in stead. 

Enjoy everyone!  I'll be back on here shortly

Hi guys!!! Hope you're doing well!!! 

Bill, i'm glad you visited that charity event and i liked the video - it touched my heart 

they couldn't handle it without your support, for sure 

Ummm... the videos that i want to share with you today are too sad... unfortunately... sorry, guys  

Many of you have seen this video I filmed at the beginning of the war - it was in April 2022, just a few months after the invasion 

The next video i filmed in October 2024... for more details just watch it... 

Buuuuut there's good news too 

Look what i have!!! 

My own sunflower duck  finally landed in Dnipro  She's so cute  isn't?

Thank you, Bill  

my coworkers couldn't figure out why I was smiling so strange at the duck on my desk today  it made me day 

So the ducks are still flying  now officially in Dnipro, Ukraine, as well!!!

Have a good week everyone!!!

No matter how this plays out, I will not abandon you.

For what it's worth.

In reply to AClockworkGarage :

I was trying to think of a non-political way to say this... Thank you for coming up with the words I couldn't.

Good morning everyone.  I contacted Vika the "night of", we're not going to stop driving.  I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for riding through this.  Let's talk about what's been happening:

Ok, you saw the sunflower duck   With Vikki being very much "The Express", I knew she was going to need something to make it official.  You couldn't imagine my surprise when the Boys and Mrs. Hungary brought that home.  It was PERFECT!!!!  Unfortunately, we forgot to pack it (and the home-made elderflower syrup from the youngest.  AND the home made palinka from our friend) when we drove into Dnipro.  Mrs. Hungary drove it all with her on her very own EKG run, which reminds me:

Dr. Julia has her EKG!!!!!!

Photos and all to follow.  But we did it!  Mrs. Hungary took the boys with her to Lviv to send the EKG to Vika through the Novaposht system and it got to Dnipro in under 24 hours (plus the boys had a DANG good time traveling to Poland and Ukraine).

Going forward (and I'll post a status update later, I know I've been bad about this.  It's just that everything's been so fast and..... scrambled).  People are reaching out to me on social media and sending money.  I now have $150 sitting in my Yahoo paypal account that does not have a destination.  This has me thinking VERY STRONGLY about pushing for a proper ballistic helmet for Yaroslav (our adopted drone pilot).  If you would like to help in that effort then please sent me a PM, or shoot a small dollar amount that way.  We haven't pointed a finger at a specific helmet yet and said "that's the one", but these things generally run in the $300 range and we're already half-way there.

And speaking of Yaroslav, I put together a video that's just been approved for public release!  Please feel free to share it with anyone you think will be interested:

The idea here is simple:  We want to fundraise a holiday care package for our troops on the line, who are putting their lives on the line.  And we DO know that there is probably military or medical equipment that all this money would be better used for, but that's not what we're after.  See, when I was deployed over the Christmas holidays, my mom used to send me smoked sausage, with crackers, and cheese, and chocolate, and baked goods, and even silly stuff like a rubber chicken and maaaaaaan did it ever lift our spirits!!!  I used to share the stuff she sent with the entire squadron and it was like a little bit of our holidays with our families made it out our way...

That's what we're going for with our care packages to Dr. Julia and Yaroslav this year.  Something to warm their hearts in the cold of this season.  Something to give them what they're missing.  Something to let them know that we're still out here.

If a direct link to the amazon wish list works better for you, I do have that as well.  It can be viewed here:

https://www.amazon.de/hz/wishlist/ls/16ZZV0KW4MHWS?ref_=wl_share

Going forward.  Guys, I know this is a tough and uncertain time for everyone.  I know I've donated to efforts in the past before and something would happen where I couldn't donate anymore.  I'd duck out somewhere in the middle because I felt guilty (I felt like I couldn't help anymore).  Under no circumstances should anyone on here do that.  Our little effort started with us crowd-funding the heating system for an entire refugee shelter.  It's grown to so much more.  No matter what you're able to do RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND, you're always going to be a part of that.  You made this effort happen. Come back in and see what you've done.  Be proud!

Second:  I do have low to no money ways to help.  This is still "Grassroots Motorsports" and this is still a "Grassroots" effort.  Elbow grease is equity.  I have a stateside address that can accept parcel deliveries.  If you wanted to send a postcard to the front or write a note to the soldiers to let them know that you're still here.  If your KID wants to DRAW a picture, then I can get that to where it needs to go (I will not read it!).

Furthermore, Katie (of the EKG variety) has just dusted herself off and is heading up an in-person effort to pack a care package for our soldiers (Dr. Julia and Yaroslav).  If you needed a stateside address to send something you wanted to give them this Christmas then she can accept and get it added in.

I'm sure there will be a lot more to follow.  Until then:  "Together Until Victory"    \m/  (<- that's my "rock on" hand )
 

And just like that.  I was able to tell Vika to start shopping for helmets

You guys rock. \mm/  (<- that's my "too much rock for one hand" emoji)