Windham volunteer steps up to assist Ukrainian refugees in Poland

Renee Darrow of Windham will travel to Poland
this month to serve as a volunteer for World
Central Kitchen, an organization that is
preparing meals for Ukrainian refugees 
displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
She will work in the kitchen and assist in
refugee food distribution there.
COURTESY PHOTO  

By Ed Pierce

Watching the invasion of Ukraine unfold and the displacement and suffering of millions of refugees, Renee Darrow of Windham felt she was faced with a choice. She could choose to be affected by the world or she could choose to affect the world. Darrow decided to make a difference and will fly to Poland later this month to volunteer for World Central Kitchen, an organization assisting in the feeding of Ukrainian refugees.

World Central Kitchen responds to natural disasters, man-made crises and humanitarian emergencies around the world and is a team of food first responders, mobilizing with the urgency of now to get meals to the people who need them most. As a volunteer, Darrow will be working in the kitchen and helping directly with refugee meal distribution in Poland.

“I have no direct connection to Ukraine. My husband’s forebears escaped the pogroms in Ukraine over 100 years ago, he believes they were from Odesa,” Darrow said. “The family members that didn’t flee were almost entirely wiped out by pogroms and then the Nazis. Maybe his family received help from strangers on their way to safety; maybe I can be that stranger to others 120-ish years later.”

She said she felt horrified and helpless as Syria was bombed by the Russians and again when Russia invaded Crimea.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine, something in me just snapped and I decided that feeling bad and doing nothing was no longer tenable,” Darrow said. “I had to do something constructive, to put my idle hands to use.”

According to Darrow, she has traveled to Europe before but never to Poland.

“My husband and I were in Italy and Portugal earlier this year,” she said. “Poland is my destination simply because that is where World Central Kitchen said to go.”

A former information technology recruiter, Darrow moved to Windham three years ago with her husband, who is supportive of her efforts to do something to help the refugees.

“When I told him I wanted to go, his immediate response was ‘“when do you want to leave?’ Of course, he doesn’t want me to enter Ukraine for fear for my safety, but I have no plans to enter Ukraine,” Darrow said. “My extended family have expressed support. My friends are kind of curious as to why I would go, but supportive.”

Her departure date is uncertain at this point, but Darrow said she hopes to be on her way to Poland by mid-April.

“My plan is to go for two weeks, spending the entire time volunteering,” she said. “I have no idea what to say to someone who is a refugee other than ‘I came to help because I had to, because you matter.’”

As of this week, Poland has taken in more than 2.3 million refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and more than 4 million Ukrainians have fled the country in total since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

The World Central Kitchen volunteers organized and arrived in Europe in late February and have been distributing more than 2.9 million meals every day at more than 1,000 locations in six different countries, including Poland where Darrow will work. It is also delivering food and meals to cities and towns inside of Ukraine to help those Ukrainians who have not left and are unable to find sustenance and clean water.

Along with volunteering her time, Darrow said that she wants to bring as many medical supplies with her to Poland as possible.

“I want to take medical supplies because I heard Poland is running low,” she said. Today, I found a list of desired humanitarian supplies on a 
Ukrainian government website and I plan to acquire gauze bandages and (I think) Tylenol. If anyone can get me wholesale prices for gauze bandages or Tylenol, or would like to donate those products, that would be great.”

Donation items can be brought to The Windham Eagle, 588 Roosevelt Trail, Windham, by April 8 to be given to Darrow. 

She does not consider herself heroic by any means but she’s just a caring person who is doing what can she to help.

“I think it’s simply a matter of demonstrating humanity to victims of the savagely inhumane. I can’t stop psychopathic bullies, but I can show up and help their victims who have lost everything,” Darrow said. “Doesn’t everyone wish they could stop the Russians? Of course, but that’s not in our power. It’s in my power to help feed the victims of Russia’s war, so I will do that.”

Her husband told her that one of his friends told him that he thought her trip to Poland was extreme, but she scoffs at that notion.

“I think it’s extreme to do nothing, to not go when I have the means, the time, the energy,” she said. “Doing nothing seems inhumane, a sin of omission.” <

Seized horses recovering at MSSPA facilities in Windham

Since July, the Maine State Society for the Protection of 
Animals in Windham has been caring for 18 horses that
were seized from an owner in Springvale. The MSSPA 
aims to rehabilitate the horses, get them healthy and find
them new homes, COURTESY PHOTO

By Ed Pierce

The Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals is always prepared to handle emergency care situations for horses but nothing the nonprofit rescue organization has seen before could prepare them for what they’ve experienced this summer.

On July 14, Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's Animal Welfare Program seized 20 horses, 11 chickens, two pigs, six dogs, six cats, two geckos, three rats, and a bearded dragon from an owner in Springvale and at that point the MSSPA assumed care for the horses, many of whom were in desperate need of food, vaccines, and veterinary care.

According to Meris Bickford, the MSSPA’s chief executive officer, the 20 rescued horses joined 27 other equines at the facility on River Road in Windham, swelling its population to 47 in just one day.

“To the best of my memory it’s the largest equine seizure I can ever recall in Maine,” Bickford said. “We used a caravan of trucks and trailers and vehicles to bring them here.”

Almost immediately two of the suffering horses were determined to be beyond the scope of medical help and were euthanized. The remaining horses that were seized range in age from a month-old filly to in their 20s.

The rescued equines include a group of wild mustangs captured by the Bureau of Land Management agents out west and shipped to the farm in Springvale where the owner was struggling to care for them.

“These mustangs are a band of five,” Bickford said. “They have not been touched before by human beings. Some had lice, some had not had their hooves trimmed or had basic vaccinations.”        

Liam Hughes, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's Animal Welfare Program director, said that he’s pleased that organizations like the MSSPA exist to assist in helping these horses recover and find new homes.

"The animals are getting the medical care and attention that they need to thrive," Hughes said. "We are immensely grateful to all of the animal sheltering organizations, animal control officers, and volunteers who worked together on this important cause."

During a hearing in July, the owner of the seized horses acknowledged an inability to care for the animals and received a lifetime animal possession ban, Hughes said. The owner can ask the court to amend the ban in five years and no charges will be filed.

In a little more than month since the seized and suffering horses arrived at the MSSPA facility, many are improving significantly, Bickford said.

“Of the 18 that are left, many are making good progress,” she said. “Some are thin, but they are not malnourished. A couple are in decent condition.”

The MSSPA’s goal is to rehabilitate the horses and then find new homes for them. They receive the best possible veterinary and farrier care on site and some eligible horses receive professional training in groundwork, riding, and driving. If no suitable adoption is found, the horses may live out their natural lives at the farm.

“For some it will be a fairly short turnaround,” Bickford said. “One of the mustangs though we have not been able to have hands on yet because it is wild.” 

Bickford said that MSSPA prepares, plans, and budgets each year to assist up to 100 rescue horses at one time but acknowledges that a large group like the one arriving this summer from the seizure does indeed put a strain on some areas associated with their care.

“It means more veterinarian resources, more feed and that our budget expenses have doubled,” she said. 

She said the MSSPA is thankful that many people have called or emailed them asking how they can help or be of assistance following the seizure, even though the facility remains closed to the public because of continuing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

“We’ve had a tremendous outpouring of interest in these animals and had all manners and offers of in-kind assistance,” Bickford said. “The best way someone can help us is by making a donation at www.msspa.org/ and to also vigorously report animal abuse to the authorities when they see it. <