Making the drive from Erie, Pennsylvania, where she attends medical school, to her home in Rosendale, Katherine Dobosh brought back another load of donations she’s collected on campus for Ukrainians, who still need help as the Russian invasion stretches into December.
“It’s the people who are left in the country who really need the support too, especially of course during winter, and the winters are very cold and long,” Dobosh said.
Dobosh, who is Ukrainian and grew up in Ulster County, said she has family still in the country and on the front lines of the war, which drove her to spearhead humanitarian efforts.
“It’s very scary. It’s one thing to see it happening on the news, but when it personally affects you, when there’s an explosion or a draft or anything happens, you call your family to see if they’re OK,” she said.
Dobosh collected items in May from friends and family to bring to Ukrainian refugees on a planned trip to Romania. In just one week, she said she had 350 pounds of clothing, 50 pounds of toys, 50 pounds of medical supplies, 14 hand-knitted blankets and over $6,000 in monetary donations. She brought the items to the North Railway Station in Bucharest, where rooms were set up for volunteers to assist with different purposes. Dobosh said she mostly helped with translation.
“I think it was very helpful just to have a friendly face who understood them. I think that was very important. Right when I said, ‘Oh I speak Ukrainian,’ their faces lit up,” Dobosh said. “For me, it was such a strong impact on me to see that I could come with, I gathered all these belongings in one week, and that made such an impact on these people.”
With winter bringing new challenges for Ukrainians, Dobosh said she wanted to do something to help once again. She is currently holding a fundraiser called, “Keep Ukraine Warm,” where she is collecting cold weather items and medication to get to Ukraine by the end of December.
“Without electricity, we know here, I tried to at school in my apartment to not have the heat on to see how that would feel like, and it is so cold,” she said. “It’s just a basic means of survival, just a blanket to stay warm, especially at night,” she said.
Along with collecting donations at school, Dobosh said she has placed boxes at the Elting Memorial Library, Fox & Hound Wine & Spirits, Imperial Guitar & Soundworks, Inquiring Minds Bookstore, Lemon Tree Hair Salon and Starbucks in New Paltz, as well as the Accord Market.
Her neighbor, Michelle Vitner, said she is assisting with local efforts while Dobosh is away at school.
“I want to just get hands-on and do something that makes a difference, so I was very thankful that Katherine is such a very enthusiastic young woman and so passionate about what she does. It motivated me to get involved,” Vitner said.
Dobosh is weighing out the cost of plane tickets to see if she will be able to hand deliver the donations. She said she would like to go, but if not, she will send them overseas.
“Families have been torn apart, and now each day, it’s just a new challenge,” she said.