The Knights of Columbus organization has created a GoFundMe account to benefit the Ukraine Solidarity Fund, a route for monetary donations and other help that will benefit the people of war-torn Ukraine.
“Every council in the world is donating to this cause,” said Medford Knight William Mazzio. “Everybody to a man in our council was distressed on what we can do, so this is kinda our effort to do that.”
As of March 29, Mazzio’s GoFundMe has raised $800 toward a $2,500 goal. Once the money is collected, it will go to the Ukraine fund, which has thus far raised $9,000 worldwide for the embattled country.
The Vineland Knights are working closely with a branch in Poland’s St. Wojciech to support people in Lviv, Ukraine. They are accepting donations of nonperishable food such as tea bags and noodles, as well as blankets, sleeping bags, coloring books and personal hygiene products. Vineland’s donations will be shipped in a 40-foot container to Knights in Poland for distribution.
Mazzio noted how a donation as low as $5 can make a difference for Ukraine.
“It’s not just one donation,” he said. “When you couple that with multiple people like our council, we always say, ‘It’s not one hour you donate, it’s all the hours everybody donates that makes things happen.’ Same thing with money.”
At the moment, there is no end date for the GoFundMe page or material donations.
“We’re going to keep sending the message out to our individual councils that it’s not over,” Mazzio said. “We’re just going to keep banging the drum.”
To donate to the Ukraine Solidarity fund visit https://donate.kofccharities.org/team/416467 and https://www.kofc.org/en/what-we-do/charity/ukraine.html.
