Items gathered for shipment to sister city in Ukraine

By JESSE SOWA
Gazette-Times reporter

The boxes are piling up inside the warehouse just across the Willamette River from Corvallis, where a local group is storing items to be sent to needy people in Ukraine in April.

On an inside wall of the city-owned building off Ireland Road is a list of 16 groups in Corvallis' sister city of Uzhgorod. The city allows the Corvallis Sister Cities Association to store items there.

There are books to be used at the university in Uzhgorod, computers, medical supplies, a refrigerator and many items needed for everyday life in the city. An orphanage, vocational training centers, hospitals, libraries and other groups will be aided by the April shipment, which will be sent in large containers on a cargo ship that is expected to arrive in Ukraine in June.

This is the fourth humanitarian aid shipment to Ukraine. More than 100,000 pounds of supplies have been sent in the three previous shipments. The costs for this year's shipment are being paid through Counterpart International, which is funded in part through the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"Something like this is really a zero-budget project," said Dr. Mark Rampton, who is helping organize the shipment.

Sister cities representatives from Corvallis will meet the shipment when it arrives and distribute some items. The rest will be given out when a larger delegation arrives in the fall.

Past mid-valley contributions have helped open medical clinics and fund an orphanage.

While the warehouse is filling up with items thanks to generous donations by area individuals, organizations and businesses, there are still many requests to be filled.

Exercise equipment, rehabilitation equipment and wooden chairs that contain no metal parts are among the items still needed. Shipment organizers have collected many boxes full of items but are looking for the public's help to fill the remaining needs. Items and donations will be accepted through March 15.

"Everybody needs wooden chairs," said Pam Hough, who was put in charge of finding rehabilitation equipment, among other items.

Hough said she's had some luck in collecting simply by persistence. About 50 beds from the now-closed Corvallis Care Center will likely fill an entire 40-foot container.

"I just made a lot of phone calls and a lot of begging," she said. "We've had a lot of success but we're still looking for some things."

Three Corvallis elementary schools are collecting toiletries and other items for the shipment. Corvallis Mammography has donated about 10,000 mammography films. A California company donated a mammography unit.

"I'm always amazed at how generous people are," sister cities member Aleita Hass-Holcombe said as she looked around the warehouse.

While the community has been generous, the local good Samaritans realize their help is a just a drop in the bucket of an on-going need.

"The shipment can't take care of it," Hass-Holcombe said.

"We're just doing little Band-Aids here," Rampton added.

How to help

UZHGOROD CHECKLIST: A list of items needed for the shipment to Uzhgorod, Ukraine, in April (only items that are new or in good condition will be accepted.):

Toys and games; new clothing; new shoes; sporting goods; bars of soap; toothbrushes; toothpaste; combs; wash cloths; musical instruments; computers (must be at least Pentium 2); washing machines and dryers; freezers; refrigerators; stoves; toilets; sewing machines and supplies; arts and crafts supplies (pencils, tablets, erasers, chalk, paper, pens, glue, staplers); scissors; electric heaters; kitchen pots; spoons, forks and knives; paring knives; table and wall lamps; liquid and powder washing detergent; first-aid supplies, including boxes of Band-Aids; thermometers; desks; tables; computer desks; chairs; bathroom scales; tractors and rototillers; quilts and blankets; Montessori supplies and wooden toys; tables for wheelchairs; tools for making ceramics; automatic treadmill; automatic exercise bike; twin sheets in new or good condition, fitted or regular; pillow cases and pillows; wheelchairs; and search and rescue items such as a boat with an engine, cross-country skis and toboggans for evacuation.

DONATIONS: Donations are being accepted to pay for transformers and hearing-aid batteries. Donations can be sent to the Corvallis Sister Cities Association, P.O. Box 176, Corvallis, 97339.

PACKING: Community packing parties at the Berg Park warehouse off Ireland Road, east of Corvallis:

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 13

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 10

INFORMATION: Contact Dr. Mark and Alice Rampton at 753-5170.

Jesse Sowa covers general assignments for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at jesse.sowa@lee.net or 758-9521.