Crate & Barrel Donates Fleece Blankets and Sleeping bag, Back Packs, Lunch Boxes and Water Bottles

As the warm summer days turn into cool fall nights, Project Aid & Rescue got a request from our friends in Kharkiv. Valery reached out and explained how many of the homes had been bombed out and how children were suffering by the trauma of the war as well as the cold elements of Mother Nature.

Valery asked if it was possible to get warm blankets and sleeping bags for the children? Upon receiving the request, Project Aid & Rescue’s Founder, Jeff Kaminsky, had an idea of who to ask for help. Jeff turned to his friend Emily at Northbrook based Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids, to ask for help.

Emily was eager to help and began going through the proper channels to get approval for a donation of blankets and sleeping bags. within a few days, Emily contacted Jeff and said, “I have good news! Not only is Crate & Barrel donating fleece blankets and sleeping bags, but they are also donating brand new backpacks, lunchboxes and water bottles for the children!”

Due to the limited safe water drinking areas, having portable water bottles is helpful. The backpacks and lunchboxes are also used by the children to store their things in them as a “Go bag“ so that they can be ready to run to a shelter when the air raid sirens go off.

Soon members of Project Aid & Rescue were on their way to pick up the donated items and get them packed and ready to ship to Ukraine. The donated blankets, sleeping bags and other items were packed into crates and airlifted to Poland and then trucked into Ukraine all the way to Kharkiv.

They arrived just in time and brightened many children’s day as a cold snap had recently arrived in Ukraine. The look of gratitude on the mother’s faces and the smiles on the children’s was a warm and wonderful sight.

Thank you to Emily Alleman, Direclor of Allocations at Crate & Barrel, Crate Kids, as well as PGL Logistics and Stronghold Group for the shipping and Air freight.

Please help us to help keep other children stay warm with a tax deductible donation. We are raising money to buy generators and blankets.

Generators are needed for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) centers where thousands of women and children are struggling without power or heat and overnight temperatures are dipping into the upper 20s.