Volunteering on the Ukraine border: St. George couple develops lifelong friendship with refugees

ST. GEORGE — Imagine being ordered to leave your home instantly. No time to pack. Forced to leave your husband and/or grandfather behind. A St. George couple recently traveled to the Ukraine and Poland border to assist refugees who are actually living this nightmare.

Ukraine family that escaped to Poland, at the table (L-R) Arina (8), Megan Pace, Tanya, Nastya (Tanya’s daughter and Arina’s sister), Sasha, Nastya’s daughter, standing is Shawn Pace (volunteer) and Lena Contor (translator), location and date not specified | Photo provided by John Rappleye, St. George News

“It was amazing to us how strongly you can connect with someone just by being a day or two with them and communicating through a translator,” John Rappleye said. “We dearly love some of these people.”

John Rappleye and his wife Nancy flew to Krakow, Poland, March 29 to volunteer. The couple traveled a few hours every day to help the refugees at the cross at the Medyka, Poland and Ukraine borders.

 The couple prayed to find whoever needed their help the most. On their first day, they mingled among refugees in line to pass through immigration and cross into Poland. One family stood out to them. A mother and married daughter and granddaughter were tearfully saying goodbye to their husbands who would be returning to defend their country and their freedom.

 The Rappleyes approached the family and offered to help. After crossing by foot into Poland, they were given food and essential items. The couple arranged for the family to go to Krakow in a rented van.

The 8-year-old refugee Arina coloring after fleeing the Ukraine, location and date not specified | Photo provided by John Rappleye, St. George News

“The family was given a hotel room paid for by donations from people they will never know,” John Rappleye said. “The family said it was nice to take a shower, a simple luxury that had not been possible for 16 days.”

The Ukraine family had lived in a nice apartment on the outskirts of Kyiv. One day, Russian soldiers came to their building. The soldiers told the residents they had to leave immediately or the women would be raped and everyone would be killed.

“When the soldiers saw Sasha (the baby), they gave the family a little more time to gather necessities,” John Rappleye said. “The family told us the soldiers then looted the entire building, loading everything of significant value into a semi-truck for shipment to Russia.” 

 The family cried as they said their apartment building was burned to the ground by the soldiers.

The family moved from place to place for days seeking safety from the constant bombing. Finally, they learned that a Green Corridor (safe passageway) was open where they would be able to travel to the border and leave Ukraine.

After the family began the journey through the Green Corridor, the area was targeted and bombed by Russia. Tanya, the grandmother, said mutilated body parts surrounded their family as they fled. But they survived and continued to make it to the border crossing.

“The family in front of them and the family behind them were bombed,” John Rappleye said. “The refugees on the way from Ukraine to Poland were being attacked.” 

The grandmother said their family had to walk through body parts that were strewn everywhere, he said.

The family arrived at the refugee camp and then were taken to a church to wait for their next step. The 8-year-old daughter, Arina, asked her mother, “We are safe now, right, mom?”

The next part of the journey was to find a safe place to wait for their husbands after the war. Rappleye said the family desired to go to France, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found a family that would shelter them.

When the Rappleyes first considered volunteering, they felt they didn’t have much to offer, were too old and didn’t have much money. He said they were trying to talk themselves out of going. But then they felt there was a need, so they rented a nine-passenger van when they arrived in Poland to help transport refugees.

“We’ve been watching on the news what was happening with the war,” John Rappleye said. “We expected that it would be a war where the military was fighting military, strength against strength and trying to weaken each other. But then we found out a lot of this war is aimed at the civilians.”

The couple met people from all over the world who came to the border to assist refugees. There were van drivers who picked up refugees from the border or the refugee centers. Volunteers also would deliver to the border such items as suitcases, medical kits, blankets and bottled water. Rappleye said many of the refugees were coming across the border with plastic bags carrying their few belongings.

He explained that there were two big waves of Ukrainian refugees fleeing at the beginning of the war. The first wave were people who had a vehicle, money and family or friends in Europe that could assist them.

The second wave of refugees relied on public transportation or other ways to reach the border. But travel to the border usually costs around $100, and suddenly it was $1,600 or more, John Rappleye said.

So many people tried to take the train that they had to leave their luggage and belongings behind to make room. When the train departed, he said there were 16 passengers in every space designed for four.

“There was a mountain of luggage left behind,” he said.

The couple found ways to purchase suitcases and get them to the refugees that made it across the border. Then they were able to transport the donated items volunteers gave them.

Another challenge facing the refugees is human trafficking, Rappleye said. Before they come across the border, the refugees were advised to beware of who offered them a ride. So while most refugees are afraid when crossing the border, many need transportation. The volunteers worked with drivers who the police vetted. The drivers and volunteers all had wristbands that identified them as a safe contact.

The couple also credits the non-profit Southern Utah organization DELIVER for inspiring them to volunteer. Brett and Bonnie Hilton of St George created the group to assist with adoptions. They work with at-risk children from all over the world. Before the war, they were working with orphanages in Ukraine.

“When the war started, they found out the children were not being moved out of the orphanages,” Nancy Rappleye said. “And so they started helping all the other refugees coming into Poland.” 

Since the pair returned home April 12, efforts to raise money for refugees continue. They are trying to assist the Hotel Geovita in Wisla, Poland, which is donating rooms for refugees. The hotel is in a ski resort town about two hours drive northeast of Krakow, Poland.

When the hotel owner saw the surge of refugees trying to escape the war in Ukraine, he opened his hotel for them to stay free. The Geovita is a large older hotel on a mountainside. The Polish government was providing food for the refugees. Then when the food ran out, the hotel staff began raising money, she said.

So far, the Rappleyes have raised $12,000 for food for refugees staying in the hotel. The couple still keeps in touch with some of the refugee friends they made. Click here if interested in donating via Venmo.

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