ORGANISERS of Daykin Estates’ collection for Ukraine in Westbury say they have been ‘overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity’ of the local people, with donations filling up three barns, a 20-tonne truck and three warehouses
Jenna Daykin, the coordinator for the Ukrainian appeal by Daykin Estates, has now appealed for donations to help pay for the associated transportation costs involved with getting the items to Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
Jenna said, “We’re extremely grateful for all that has been sent, and like most collections for Ukraine, we’re now at capacity and have to sort through and send what we’ve got. If you still want to help, then we are in desperate need of donations to help pay for fuel to get these donations to the right people and we’ve sent up a GoFundMe on the Daykin Estates website.
“It’s great that people are donating to the Ukraine appeal organised by the government, however we have all these warehouses full of good stuff to give to people in need, but we can’t fund the transportation of all these items fully ourselves unfortunately. Just from looking at the warehouses we’ve got full now, we’re looking towards another eight trucks at least, so we will need to fund all the transportation costs – it’s about £800 just in fuel!
Money raised for transportation costs will cover fuel, drivers and custom clearances. Organisers say that 100% of the funds to be raised will go to the people who need it and that any spare funds will be used to purchase items that the Ukrainian refugees or army are in desperate need for.
Donations such as clothes, bedding and medical supplies have poured in to Daykin Estates and organisers are now in the process of getting these sent to Ukrainian refugees at a Volunteer Centre Association in Lublin, Poland.
Jenna added, “We are now completely at capacity. We’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of the people of Westbury! I’m in the process of trying to acquire more and more storage units; we’ve personally filled up roughly three barns, a 20-tonne truck, and three warehouses at capacity. It seemed a bit chaotic at the start, but we’ve cracked on with it, and with the help of volunteers, we’re on the right track.”
“The issue we’ve found is that every item needs to be boxed and counted to get through customs, and this was really slowing down things, but we’ve streamlined things now with a conveyer belt with about 30 to 40 people working together.
“We’ve got four ambulances leaving today that are filled with medical supplies and the pet food was sent on its way last night.
“A huge shout-out to all volunteers that have helped us organise the donated items and those that helped coordinate sending these out, they’ve been the un-sung heroes of this whole thing really. The vast majority have come back to help out daily and we’ve had somewhere between 20 to 40 volunteers at a time, right up until 8pm every day.”
Special thanks
Jenna wishes to give special thanks to the local schools that either held their own collection drives or helped fund the transportation costs.
“Dilton Marsh Primary School have been fantastic”, Jenna said. “They held a collection to help pay for transportation costs and raised £780 all by themselves just with buckets and I was blown away when one little boy put his money box in for donation which had £70 in it! It really shows how the community has pulled together in this awful time.
“Fairfield Farm College deserve a huge shoutout for letting us use their barns, but also for helping organise items and running their own collection for items as well. The volunteers from the college have been so helpful; we’ve filled up three of their barns with clothing and Holly, in particular, has been a massive help to me personally.
“Warminster School have also been great; we’ve had a bunch of volunteers from the school come down after school and left after 9pm and they just got stuck straight in with packing.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help of our amazing volunteers who have given up their time to tackle the mountain of food, medicines, bedding etc that have been received. Most of them here all day in all weathers.
“We also want to give a massive shout out to the local businesses who have fed our volunteers and supplied anything from boxes to pallets, shrink wrap to packing tape, and from pens to labels.”
Jenna says she plans to go around some of the local schools soon to hold collections to help pay for transport costs of all the donated items.
• You can find a link to donate to transport
costs here: www.gofund me.com/f/
money-for-the-people-of-ukraine
