Point Beach Mayor Documents Heartwrenching Ukrainian Refugee Work In Photos, Videos, Words

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — For the last five days, Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Paul Kanitra has seen orphans arriving from Ukraine, grateful for a hot meal as they make their way to orphanages in Poland.

He's seen families come across the border into Poland long enough to stock up supplies and head back to Ukraine to fight for their homeland.

He's driven refugees in the middle of the night to the safety of a refugee center, adults and children filling a passenger van, sitting on laps to get everyone in.

Kanitra, who headed to Poland last Friday to help the families fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where his ancestors are from, has been documenting the work he and his best friend, Greg Johnson, have been doing to help the refugees. Read more: Point Beach Mayor Heads To Poland To Help Ukrainian Refugees

More than 1 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since Feb. 24, Reuters has reported. The vast majority of them are women and children, most of whom have come with little more than they could carry.

On Friday, Kanitra posted about arriving at the Mydyka border crossing, meeting volunteers and getting a sense of what was needed. In that Facebook post he shared several videos of his conversations, commenting, "You’ll note that Charles has seen a lot of fighters coming through on their way to Ukraine. It put things in true perspective that he spoke of baby formula and bulletproof vests in short order while listing needs."

On Saturday, he and Johnson went to Krościenko, a smaller border crossing.

"Immediately after arriving, we saw a bus loaded with small children and very few adults, cross the border, stop and get out for a free hot meal and other assistance," he wrote. "We went over to one of the three or four adults with them to ask about the situation. It needed two translators (Someone who spoke Ukrainian to translate to Polish and then someone who spoke Polish to translate it to us) but we found out that they were almost all orphans heading to orphanages in Poland. To say we were choked up would be an understatement. It was almost impossible to keep from tearing up.

"I offered them literally all of the money in my wallet, but in the end they only would take the equivalent of a few hundred dollars. Afterwards, one of the kids came up to Greg and I and wanted to shake our hands," Kanitra wrote.

"I'm posting some video from Krościenko as well as the main train station in Przemysl, where we saw Ukrainians arriving by rail, but also fighters and families staging to go back in," he wrote.

On Sunday, Kanitra and Johnson spent most of the day volunteering with World Central Kitchen, preparing food for refugees and taking supplies to the Mydyka border crossing.

He also urged people who want to help to give monetary donations, and offered organizations that he said he has seen in action helping the refugees.

"For all of you who have so selflessly asked how you can help, here is the full situation. Shipping things here is mostly impractical," Kanitra wrote. "It’s expensive and they have a lot of warehouses already filled with clothes, water, food, etc. They need more help and better logistics. That can really only come through donations."

On Monday, Kanitra's update called it "Easily the hardest day yet."

Tables they set up with supplies were quickly emptied, and they made multiple trips to stores to get more warm socks and gloves, and surge protectors.

"We went through about a hundred stuffed animals and kept going back to stores for more," Kanitra wrote. "Watching some of the kids light up and hug the stuffed animals was yet another moment of trying to keep from getting all choked up."

Later, after serving hot meals, Kanitra and Johnson were getting ready to head out when they were approached at about 1 a.m. to help transport a dozen refugees.

"Our van only seats 10 total so they were crammed in and sitting on each other’s laps," Kanitra wrote. "All I kept thinking the whole first part of the drive was how much of a shock getting to the refugee center was going to be to them. While filled with tight security and kind-hearted volunteers, it is still an abandoned supercenter that looks that way and smells of long journeys, animals and more.

"I asked them if they’d like to go for McDonald's beforehand, and to our surprise they all said yes. We bought all the kids Happy Meals with the toys and the adults whatever they wanted, and hope that it softened the tough night ahead somewhat," he wrote.

"I don’t have any elegant way to end this post. It was a tough day in tough circumstances. Hopefully shedding some light on it all here will do some good by raising awareness."

Kanitra suggested the following organizations as places to send monetary donations:

• The Polish Red Cross, which is providing medical assistance to those who need it;
• World Central Kitchen, which is providing hot, high-quality meals at all border crossings and refugee centers in Poland and other border countries;
• Caritas Poland, which has committed to getting 2,000 orphans out of Ukraine;
• Khalsa Aid International, which provides humanitarian aid all over the world. "We are inspired by the Sikh principle of 'Recognise the whole human race as one, ' " the group's Facebook page says.

"We are only here a few more days. These groups will be here for the duration of this worsening crisis," Kanitra wrote.

You can read Kanitra's Facebook posts here.

Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters here, or download our app to have breaking news alerts sent right to your phone. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Point Pleasant Patch on Facebook.