Point Beach Concert Raises $200K To Assist Ukraine Refugees

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — A concert in Point Pleasant Beach to assist Ukrainian refugees raised nearly $200,000 on Sunday, Mayor Paul Kanitra said Monday.

"We need maybe a week for other checks to come in and to sell a few T-shirts online and count cash to get a final number," Kanitra said of the Point Pleasant Beach Cares: Concert For Ukraine event on Sunday at Jenkinson's Club on the boardwalk.

The sold-out event saw more than 1,400 people fill the club to listen to the Ukrainian Chorus of Dumka of New York, Bobby Bandiera and Friends, Joe Bonanno and the Godsons, Green Secret, and solo acts Ed Testa, and Steve Forbert.

The three-hour concert opened with Ukrainian Chorus of Dumka, which sang the U.S. national anthem and the Ukrainian anthem, and a third selection.

Kanitra said the proceeds from the event will be split between World Central Kitchen, which has been feeding Ukranian refugees hot meals when they have arrived in Poland, and Caritas Poland, which has been helping refugees find shelter, with a particular emphasis on Ukrainian children who have been orphaned by the war.

Kanitra saw both organizations in action in Poland when he went to volunteer in the early days after Russia invaded Ukraine.

World Central Kitchen was providing hot meals to refugees right after they crossed the border, and days of walking to escape the fighting.

"It cost roughly $1 per meal, and for many it was the first hot meal they had had in days," Kanitra said Sunday during the concert.

"Caritas was everywhere I was in Poland," he said Monday in a text message to Patch. "I got to meet their staff and volunteers and see their work first-hand. We set up next to them to hand out our supplies at Przemysl.

"They were at the borders and the train stations, too," Kantra said. "But most importantly they were helping to get the orphans out of Ukraine and resettle them."

See some of the experiences he documented on his trip to Poland to help the refugees: Point Beach Mayor Documents Heartwrenching Ukrainian Refugee Work

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