Making Christmas brighter in war-torn Ukraine

Boyd Byelich of Rogers City presents some Christmas gifts to a young girl in Ukraine. He plans to return to the country in a month or two.

by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor

Boyd Byelich of Rogers City has returned from another humanitarian trip to Ukraine where he was able to hand out Christmas presents and warm clothing in an area of the country that only had been liberated for more than a month.

All donned in body armor and helmets near the city limits of Kherson, Ukraine.

“We were able to give out presents to 600 children,” said Byelich. “Some were at refugee centers in Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk, where I was actually able to hand out the toys directly to the kids. We sent some toys to an orphanage, and in a different place, a facility for handicap children. And then we took some toys with us when we went out east where we had the body armor.”

There were 50 children that received the toys in shoeboxes.

The reactions of the children, who were not expecting much, and quite frankly looked stunned, is all the inspiration Byelich needs to keep pressing forward.

To keep seeking donations of warm clothing and over-the-counter drugs as well as monetary donations to purchase items or for shipping costs.

Byelich remains as motivated as ever.

And thanks to the people he has met, and the contacts made, he has started participating in a class of Ukrainian college students via Zoom. The first class was last week with questions going back and forth between the northern Michigan man and the young adult students.

Byelich looks forward to the next class, and that next trip to the country, that may take place in the next month, even if his vacation time is exhausted.

Byelich’s last humanitarian trip took place from Dec. 15, 2022 to Jan. 9.

“While I was there, I made three separate trips into Ukraine from Krakow, Poland,” said Byelich on the 11-month anniversary of the invasion. The Russian Army invaded the country, Feb. 24, 2022. During his last trip, he was a mile from the Russian front line and had to wear battle armor and a helmet.

“When this started, it was all about collecting and sending clothing, which that has continued, I just shipped 23 boxes last Saturday,” said Byelich.

He drives to metro Detroit and drops them off at a Polish travel agency that ensures that the packages arrive at their destination at the lowest possible cost.

But even that has changed since last spring as he can send the boxes directly into Ukraine and not just Poland. It still takes about two and one-half weeks.

Nearly one year after the invasion, conditions remain the same, although the footprint of the battlefield has shifted from north central around Kyiv to be entirely focused in the east and northeast.

“What’s different, since October (2022) are all the missile strikes in cities, in this indiscriminate killing of many people,” said Byelich. “I was in Kyiv on Christmas Eve, and a week later on New Year’s Eve, a rocket hit really close to where I had been and killed four people.”

Air raid sirens are a part of daily life and it is something Byelich heard every day.

“School children head for shelters and everybody says, ‘we are going to live, this is not going to make us scurry into a hole every time there is a missile,’ ” said Byelich. “Their will is as strong as ever. They are learning to live with all of this evil.”

Byelich was 2 miles from a missile strike that did not blow up, but remained intact in someone’s living room.

‘I was really proud to spend time with the people of the country,” said Byelich. “One of my best memories came in the village of Oleksandrivka, which is 90 percent destroyed.” Ukrainian artillery was less than a mile away and firing on Russian positions while Byelich was there.

“I was sitting in one of the last remaining buildings standing around a woodstove,” he continued. “I sat there for 10 minutes and had a cup of coffee with two guys that spoke Russian but were Ukrainian. We did not say much, just sat there and had a cup of coffee. There was something about it that is very powerful, like I was sharing the experience they are going through.”

Byelich says that 100 percent of the donations are going directly to those in need and n

ot a lot of organizations can claim that. Even the drives to the Detroit area to drop off packages are out of pocket.

He also is moving forward with creating  a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that will be called One Box, and will be for providing humanitarian aid for any man-caused or natural disasters, one box at a time from people to people.

Anyone interested in making a donation can call Byelich at 307-286-4807, emailing boydbyelich@gmail.com or visiting the One Box for Ukraine website on Facebook.