Southampton Polish Club overwhelmed by Ukraine donations

The city's Polish Social Club has been collecting items in aid of the war-torn country since last week.

But volunteers are having to temporarily stop the operation to sort through donations.

Organiser, Paulina Kozlowska said there is now enough to fill three entire lorries.

"We only expected to send one van over," she told the Echo, "but we are now running out of storage room. We are positively overwhelmed."

"We need to wrap it up, sort, pallet and ship over the items.

Volunteers including Wioletta Nowakowska centre left, Paulina Kozlowska, centre, on Sunday at the Polish Social Club.

"People have been absolutely amazing, the response has been unbelievable. I'd like to say a massive thanks to every single person, and also to the Marlands who have been more than patient with us, as we have been loading up the goods from there."

The group has already sent a van-load of items to Ukraine, and the first lorry left Southampton on Wednesday evening.

Ms Kozlowska continued: "People have been so generous with their time, money and goods.

"One man who was hardly able to walk came in and gave us a jumper to send. He said he owned two, but that others needed the second more than him."

On Wednesday, the club launched a JustGiving page, appealing for cash donations to help with transport costs.

But it has already raised more than £2,200, with the total growing by the hour.

"We had looked to cover the transport costs, but with this kind of money we can do more.

The donations to Southampton's Polish Club

"We are now looking at buying medical tents and electric generators in Poland to send across the border.

"It depends how much is raised, but that is certainly a possibility."

Residents still have one last chance to donate to the Polish Club in Portswood Road on Friday and Saturday between 9am and 3pm.

Donations can be made to the Crowdfunder at: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/polishsocialclub-southampton

In the city this weekend, the Southampton Council of Faiths has organised a peace vigil for Ukraine.

On Sunday March 6 at 4pm, crowds will gather at the Peace Fountain in East Park.

Meanwhile, in Romsey, residents have packed the town hall with donations in what has been described as an ‘amazing’ showing of solidarity.

Civic chiefs have been inundated with contributions after opening the council building up as a collection point on Tuesday.

Food, toiletries, nappies, bandages and even tents have been given in a bid to help Ukrainian civilians, who have been subjected to a constant barrage of bombings and attacks as Putin continues his attempted invasion of the country.

All the donations will be collected tomorrow and taken to the Polish border by Lift and Shift, a Southampton-based skip hire business which also has sites in Fareham and Portsmouth.

Managing director of the Fareham site, Mick Balch, decided to take action after speaking with colleagues who all felt they needed to offer help.

He discussed the idea with operations manager and Romsey resident Steve Kibbey, and between them the pair organised for Mr Balch and a couple of Polish nationals who work for the firm to embark on the three-day venture.

Mr Kibbey, said: “Obviously with what’s going on in Ukraine we all wanted to do something, so Mick decided he was going to make a collection amongst the staff and get some aid together and go over. We employ a fair amount of Polish people, and with Poland being so close to what’s currently happening, it’s something they feel incredibly passionate about, as we all do.”

By chance, Mr Kibbey, 52, spoke about the companies’ plans with his next-door neighbour, Councillor Dorothy Baverstock, who immediately offered Romsey Town Council’s support and a place for them to collect and store the donations.

“She asked me whether Romsey Town Council could support our actions and I said, ‘well of course you can’, and it has kind of mushroomed from there to be honest with you,” he said.

The cut off for donations was 3pm on Thursday, March 3, with council staff and Lift and Shift using Friday and Saturday to pack up resident’s contributions ahead of Sunday’s departure.