This week all the stars lined up - Christmas in June !

It all started with a phone call from Kyiv. Our friend Chris from the UK gave us a contact for Michael who had an offer for me.

Michael is German and has been driving his van filled with aid from Germany to Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

Michael has made over 100 trips!

Michael was recently in contact with a German Hospital who just purchased a large amount of new equipment. This hospital now wanted to donate all existing equipment to someone and of course get the tax credit for this charitable donation.

The shipment was very large and among other things contained 21  very expensive electric, multi-position beds, a large quantity of bedside medical tables and many other valuable medical furniture and appliances.

 

This was a wonderful potential donation BUT there was one small problem. There was no money available to transport this truckload of  aid from Germany to Lviv, Ukraine.

The question was asked ,” Eddie, Are you interested?” and of course I said “Yes!”.

I immediately contacted Assistant Director Dr. Zoryana at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital and she wanted everything!

 

Now, the challenge was how much would a large 18-wheeler transport truck charge for a Germany to Ukraine shipment and where do I find one during a War?

I was contacting various sources to get a rate for us to at least consider when I received a call from Dr. Zoryana.

She had spoken to the City Council of Lviv and they said that they just happened to have a large truck now in Europe and it was returning empty. 

We were put in contact with the trucker and with Michael and within a 24-hour period the truck arrived in Germany, loaded up and began its journey to Lviv. Total transport cost- ZERO!

 

Four days later, the truck was unloaded at the hospital and it is Christmas time in Lviv.

There were many extra items in the truck that were donated at the last minute, for example 58 fire extinguishers, which may not sound very exciting but they are urgently needed so that this large 500 bed hospital can comply with all fire codes.

 

And that is my story, so if you are at a gathering and someone mentions some surplus items, please remember us in Ukraine and maybe we can find a way to bring Christmas to Ukraine again!

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