Communities in Bridport and surrounding area have been been rallying together to support the people of Ukraine through online fundraisers, donating aid, and even driving vans of supplies over to eastern Europe direct to the refugees fleeing the country.
It comes as the Bridport News joins forces with other titles in Newsquest to launch a fundraising campaign allowing readers to contribute to the Red Cross DEC Ukraine Humanitarian appeal.
There's a 'There With Ukraine' poster on pages 24-25 of the this week's News - out today - which we’re hoping readers will display to show their support for the campaign.
Ever since the Russian invasion, local people have been moved to show their support for the people of Ukraine.
Bridport’s Chapel in the Garden held a silent candlelit vigil and donations started to be collected, including by Ellie Cox, owner at Waves Hair Studio at Freshwater Holiday Park, Burton Bradstock.
Tom Littledyke, who runs the Shave Cross Inn, set off on a mercy dash travelling to the Ukrainian border with a van-load of supplies for refugees.
After returning he has since secured a large donation including 20 stretchers and 10,000 trauma bandages. He was due to set off this week along with 13 vehicles full of medical equipment.
Meanwhile, another lorry left Bridport this week for the Ukraine-Poland border driven by Gary Copp of Catch of the Day in West Bay and Rory Brown of Cains Farm Transport.
As reported last week, an army of volunteers has been collecting donations to fill the articulated lorry.
Now helpers have begun filling up a second lorry, with the town’s mayor Ian Bark paying a visit to those packing the items this week.
“It is amazing what we can do when everyone has the same goal, people just want to help,” said Claire Nuttall of Bridport Music Centre, who has been helping to coordinate aid efforts in Bridport.
“We thought for the artic lorry we would ask for as much as we could and then go to Bournemouth to fill it up but we managed to do that with just Bridport.
“Everything has been beautifully boxed and it is all properly packaged so it is going straight through in Poland.
“The second artic lorry is half-full so we will send that as soon as it is full, we managed to fit about 818 boxes on the previous lorry.”
Ms Nuttall says the team have a few vans now going out which have been waved and cheered through Customs as they embark on 1,300-mile trip to the Ukrainian border.
She says those who have been organising aid efforts in Bridport have now changed where they will be sending their aid to following a plea for help.
“We have actually decided to switch to sending aid to Moldova now because we got an SOS from someone who said they were a public figure in a small town there,” added Ms Nuttall.
“125,000 had crossed the border there in 48 hours and he said they weren’t getting any help, so we said we need to go to Moldova even if it is another ten hours drive.”
Ms Nuttall says most of the donations have been usable with only 5% not, of which everything is being recycled apart from ‘some dirty pillows’ which will be sent to landfill.
Currently, people can drop aid off at Bridport Music Centre between 10am-1pm, Parkdean Resorts' swimming pool in West Bay and Rise Bakery between 9am-5pm, and the telephone box in South Street anytime.
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