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04/13/2022 08:30 AMWhen tragedies occur and people step in to help the victims a snowball effect can form. The outpouring of aid in times of emergency is encouraging and heartwarming. This is how Kalie Peccerillo feels about the response she has received from the citizens of North Haven and East Haven who have learned about her daily efforts to help the refugees of war-torn Ukraine.
It all started when Kalie, an adjunct professor of health and a doctoral degree student at the University of New Haven, received an email.
“My professor sent a forwarded email from another professor who is Ukrainian,” Kalie explains. “His name is Victor Markiw and he belongs to St. Michael [the Archangel] Ukrainian Catholic Church in New Haven. He forwarded this long email out to some of his colleagues, and then it was forwarded to the doctoral students.”
The email explained what was happening in Ukraine because of the Russian military invasion and asked for help.
Kalie, a North Haven native, also learned inside details of the deplorable living conditions within the hardest-hit areas from one of her colleagues who is of Ukrainian descent and has family still living there.
In Kalie’s work as a practice manager at Yale University in OG/BYN, she provides support services to Dr. Alla Vash-Margita, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist who is Ukrainian.
“Ever since things started when Russia invaded Ukraine, I was hearing a lot of things from Alla and tried to provide support to her,” Kalie says. “She has in-laws there. I really wanted to do something to help.”
That circulated email was the catalyst that inspired Kalie to do her part.
“This was the perfect opportunity to donate,” Kalie says. “But I took a step further and posted it [Victor Markiw’s email] on the North Haven community pages on Facebook—I’m a member of two different ones—and also on my personal Facebook page.”
In her own postings, Kalie solicited donations of clothes and medical supplies, as well as many other items, and people started messaging Kalie, offering donations.
“So, I started collecting, and I brought my first carload down to the [St. Michael] church hall,” Kalie says, noting that the church already had a plethora of used clothes and didn’t need more at the time, “but they were looking for the medical items.”
As word continued to spread, “I got a flood of emails from people who wanted to donate, which I thought was so fantastic,” says Kalie. “I was so happy that people in the area were willing to donate. What’s going on now over in Ukraine is so awful. People see what they see in the media, and some people have connections to Ukrainian people and hear from them, and it’s so upsetting what’s going on over there it encourages me to do what I can.”
At the time Kalie spoke with the Courier, she had already delivered her third carload of supplies, $225 of donated cash, and a $300 check to the church.
“And I have three wheelchairs sitting in my garage that someone donated and dropped off at my house that I have to figure out how to get down to the church,” Kalie notes.
As a result of the outpouring and trying to ship only the most needed items to start, St. Michael has limited shipped items to medical supplies and new clothes people donated like new thermal garments, socks, blankets, Kalie notes, “Only because it’s so expensive to ship.”
“Medical supplies are needed the most,” Kalie adds, “plus cloths, tableware, clothing, and sleeping bags.”
But cash and checks are also needed, since, as Kalie says, “It’s very expensive to ship the heavier items over to Ukraine—Carl Harvey [commander of the UAV Post 33 in Orange] at the church handles that—and they need cash donations to help cover the shipping costs.”
“I’m very thankful to the people who have donated, whether it be monetarily or items,” Kalie says. “Some people went out and bought all new stuff at Target or went through their closets and donated lightly used or brand-new shoes and blankets. They’ve brought so many items to me that are going to be so helpful.”
Cash donations are also used to purchase military protective equipment, according to Kalie, like bullet-proof vests and helmets.
“Dr. Vash-Margita is now working with others to set up a non-profit fund to raise money specifically for buying military-grade protective equipment for Ukrainian civilians,” Kalie says adding, “That’s who is turning into their military over there to help protect their country, the civilians.
“And they need bulletproof vests and helmets that are being made in the Czech Republic, so they don’t have to be shipped from the United States,” Kalie continues. “The equipment is ordered, paid for, and delivered to the Polish-Ukraine border, and then someone at the border gets the equipment into Ukraine.”
Kalie admits that her motivation to help others stems from her childhood, but she is not sure from where, since no one ever suggested directly that she should volunteer or learn to donate.
“I’ve pretty much been like this my entire life,” Kalie admits. “For one of my birthday parties, between ages 7 and 10, the party was at the East Haven [Shore Line] Trolley Museum, and I asked people to bring preemie clothes to donate at Yale [Hospital] instead of bringing me gifts. I’ve always been like that. I don’t know where it comes from. I enjoy doing things for other people and I never expect anything in return. I just want people to know that they have someone in their corner, who is advocating for them.”
Regarding donation collections for Ukraine, Kalie says, “I make myself available to pick up items, checks, or cash, and I can get a receipt from the church should [people] want it.”
She notes she’ll make pickups in both East Haven and North Haven as needed.
Kalie plans to keep helping the Ukrainian people for as long as the war goes on, and after, too, to do her little part, as she calls it, to help the Ukrainian people rebuild after the war.
Kalie concludes, “I’d rather get a B in a class and help others than get an A in every class and not help people.”
To make donations or for more information, contact Kalie at kalie.peccerillo@gmail.com. Checks can be made payable to UAV Post 33. In the memo section write Ukrainian Soldier Welfare Fund and mail to: Ukrainian American Veterans Post 33, P.O. Box 972, Orange, CT 06477