After a couple days of preparation in Warsaw Poland, we packed up our gear and headed to the train station. It's been two years since we spent time traveling between the refugee camps in Poland, meeting the strong Ukrainian people, and extending a hand of friendship between our small community 🇨🇦 to theirs 🇺🇦. This is the next necessary step to bring people together in a time of unnecessary division. The crossing to Lviv was about 12 hours of train and bus transfers, and included Royce carrying a little girl off the bus when her Mom couldn't because of a surgery. This country constantly warms my heart. Please keep following and remember our gofundme campaign to support the children attending the camp. 🙏  ❤️

​So our first nights sleep was (fittingly) in an old vodka factory with a great boar painting in the downstairs common area. We're taking it as a good omen for the project 😉. The street art is beautiful in Warsaw. You can see a real melding of old Eastern Bloc architecture and new world development. The people here are as colorful as the paint they use on the old bricks. Resting and prepping for a day, then onto the task at hand. Huge love to all who are following ❤️ please share our story with the people who would like to help. Pushing forward. 

To directly support this cause please click here to go to our GoFundMe campaign. 
To find out more about the organization we are working with, please click here.

Strayboar is rolling out again! This time we're headed directly to the camps for kids in Ukraine. Again, we've taken care of our expenses so that any and all of the funds we raise will go directly to the most vulnerable community in Ukraine. As we're able to update and document our trip, we'll be posting our progress along the way. We've also included the GoFundme link to make it as easy as possible to lend a hand! We appreciate all the help we can get. Love to all involved ❤️  Thank you! 

Hello Everyone! The latest update for the Strayboar Ukraine Aid Project is here! Thank you to everyone who's made this effort a success. We hope you enjoy, and continue to follow along!

I need to take a moment to relay an ongoing story of hope and kindness to start this new year off. I haven’t written about it prior to this, honestly because I wanted to protect the people involved. Some of the folks that we used to work with are still operating in sensitive areas, so it’s an ongoing consideration. One such person we remain in contact with is operating in Ukraine at the time that I’m writing this post. 
Brandon Mitchell arrived in Ukraine around the same week in April 2022 that we landed in Poland. He liquidated a safe and secure life in western Europe to purchase an ambulance and drive into a fresh war zone intent on providing help. He weathers regular shelling, bears witness to horrific actions and is increasingly shown the depths to which humanity can sink.

​Sorry people! It's been a busy few days. Royce and I have been on the move between the border of Ukraine and several towns in Poland. 

​The weight thrust upon the people of the Ukrainian underground is unimaginable. We spoke at length with the two of them about what we could provide and what we could not. We've learned to introduce ourselves as Canadians, as emissaries of peace. It seems that the reputation of Canadians precedes us, for more than once we've been referred to as the kind ones. 

​After a lengthy chat about when and where to meet with food and medical supplies, we moved to another location inside Poland. Acting on a tip from a friend in Canada, we drove three hours to the Help Ukraine Center coordinating out of Lublin. Operating on nothing but the location of a HUGE warehouse complex, and the smiling faces of Lynn Hennigar and Adrian Bohach in a photo. These two beautiful Canadians are from Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia (15 minutes from my home!!) yet we have never crossed paths before. We entered a complex of industrial buildings and warehouses. As we drove through the manned gate and into a maze of buildings, Royce commented that a needle in a stack of needles would be easier to locate. Agreeing, I just picked a space at random and hopped out with phone in hand. As we picked a door that looked like an entrance, a man came out pushing a dumpster of cardboard boxes. I looked at my phone and back at Royce, "I think that's Adrien." I laughed and we both stared in disbelief. 
"Adrian?" 
The man looked at us puzzled, "Yes?" 
I said, "A mutual friend of ours in Nova Scotia says hello... we're from Lunenburg." What came after the laughter and a couple of expletives, were the seeds of an immediate friendship. Adrien is of Ukrainian heritage, now living in Mahone Bay with his beautiful family, all of whom are working out of this warehouse, processing aid packages from all over the world. After giving us a tour of the facility, he introduced us to a staff composed of girlfriends and wives of Ukrainian service members. It was immediately apparent where our next shipment of aid was headed. ​

Serendipity doesn't describe the set of circumstances that brought us here. I firmly believe that a mission  built on a foundation of peace and kindness has no limits. Keep us in your thoughts, but please direct your light and positive energy at the heroes of this conflict. 
We've found no greater purpose here than emissaries of peace.

​Since the war began in Ukraine, we've seen numerous veterans putting the armour back on to ride off into battle. Whether it's on the frontline as an operator longing for the tip of the spear or in any of the numerous roles along its edge, there is a very clear theme, service is never done. 

​"J" was apparently tired of watching the war unfold from the safety of his home, and hopped a plane to help the refugees who lost everything. The gist of the conversation as we walked in was, "...But Ma'am, I have three houses back in the United States. These people need homes, and I got ‘em!"

​I reiterate, service is never done. It's not indoctrination, it's not brainwashing. It is a fundamental need to help, to run toward the fire. Royce and I stood in awe with our load of food and art supplies, like looking into an almost certain future. 
"I think this is what we do now, I think this is our job." 
All I could do was nod. 

Okay, so it's been a busy few weeks. 

​Over the past few days we've been able to acquire an 8 passenger transport van to move people and humanitarian supplies in and out of Western Ukraine. The latest day's work consisted of making contact at the Warsaw East train station (impromptu refugee staging area) and two other Polish camps housing refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Ukraine. 
Poland has welcomed these people with open arms in an unfathomable act of kindness. We had the absolute honour of meeting some real life heroes today, to witness first hand what's possible when peace and love are used in place of cruelty and malice. We're helping to deliver aid to two camps tomorrow. 

​From its inception, the Strayboar Project has used artistic expression to mend mental wounds, to accept physical wounds and to bring balance to lives lacking purpose. I don’t think we’ve openly stated on this platform that all three of us have been 3B medically released from the Canadian Forces. All three of us have been through the medical system’s response to trauma for a combined 28 years, and it's given us some insight.