Sophia Alfano, a fifth-grade student from St Joseph School, sort bags that had been filled with donations of personal goods, to be sent to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. In the basement of St Joseph Church, Tuesday afternoon. March 22, 2022, Danbury, Conn.
Elliot Dickinson, a fifth-grade student from St Joseph School, sorts bags that had been filled with donations of personal goods, to be sent to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. In the basement of St Joseph Church, Tuesday afternoon. March 22, 2022, Danbury, Conn.
Fifth-grade students from St Joseph School sort bags, that had been filled with donations of personal goods, to be sent to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. In the basement of St Joseph Church, Tuesday afternoon. March 22, 2022, Danbury, Conn.
Fifth-grade students from St Joseph School sort bags, that had been filled with donations of personal goods, to be sent to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. In the basement of St Joseph Church, Tuesday afternoon. March 22, 2022, Danbury, Conn.
Brooklyn Lounsbury, a fifth-grade student from St Joseph School, sorts bags that had been filled with donations of personal goods, to be sent to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. In the basement of St Joseph Church, Tuesday afternoon. March 22, 2022, Danbury, Conn.
Fifth-grade students from St Joseph School sort bags, that had been filled with donations of personal goods, to be sent to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. In the basement of St Joseph Church, Tuesday afternoon. March 22, 2022, Danbury, Conn.
DANBURY — After St. Joseph School and Parish in Danbury asked for donations for Ukrainian refugees, Megan Cerullo’s inbox filled with messages from people wanting to help.
She was still amazed over the weekend by the number of people who donated purses, diaper bags and backpacks filled with essential supplies that refugees fleeing to Poland need.
“It was just a constant flow of traffic, of people coming in tears saying ‘Thank you for doing this,’” said Cerullo, the director of advancement and president of the PTO at St. Joseph School.
Now, colorful bags piled on bags fill the parish hall, with boxes stacked throughout the room.
“We’re playing like a guessing game, but we’re thinking maybe 3,000 to 4,000 (bags) easy,” Cerullo said.
With so many donations and more expected to come in, St. Joseph can no longer fit everything in a few SUVs to take to a shipping company. The church is asking for the public’s help to procure packing boxes and is communicating with shipping companies for a way to get the donations to Poland.
“We’re looking for a high wealth individual or a company, sports team perhaps, who has a jet, someone who can help us get these bags to Poland because we know it's beyond us now,” Cerullo said. “It’s bigger than all of us.”
Students are helping to organize the supplies this week, with another drive planned for this weekend at St. Lawrence O’Toole in Brewster, N.Y. Donations may be dropped off from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the St. Lawrence O’Toole gym.
Cerullo said the number of bags could “double very easily within the next few days.”
The donation drives have brought together including local companies, Westside Middle School Academy in Danbury, a Darien church and Wilton Public Schools.
The plan is to send the supplies to the Municipal Social Welfare Center in Wałbrzych, Poland, where the sister of one of St. Joseph’s parishioners has been working to process refugees.
“They just have this huge need,” said Cerullo, adding the sister is “thrilled and overwhelmed” by the donations.
At least 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled their home country since Russia invaded at the end of February, with more than 2 million refugees going to Poland. They lack basic supplies, so St. Joseph asked community members to fill purses with necessities for women, diaper bags with supplies for babies and backpacks with items for kids.
Bedoukian Research, Inc in Danbury responded by donating 80 bags stuffed with disposable gloves, face shields, cloth face masks, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Williams Raveis Real Estate in Southbury started its own collection on behalf of St. Joseph.
Seventh-graders at Westside Middle School Academy made cards for the backpacks, while Wilton Public Schools is collecting supplies across the district. Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien filled three SUVs with close to 200 bags.
The Rosary Ladies of St. Joseph Parish joined forces with St. Lawrence O’Toole to make more than 500 rosaries for the purses, as well as for St. Lawrence to run its own collection.
“You can't watch and not feel a certain obligation to help. It’s simply heartbreaking,” Maryellen Guerriero, a Long Island resident and grandparent of two children at Saint Joseph School, who came up with the idea to collaborate.
Among the people who dropped off bags over the weekend was a woman who fled her home at age 7 during World War II. She told Cerullo she believes she and her family survived because of the support that came from America.
“It blew me away,” Cerullo said. “I didn’t have much to say because I couldn’t find the words to respond to that.”
Julia Perkins has been a reporter with The News-Times since June 2016 and covers the towns of Bethel and Brookfield. She also has covered breaking news for Hearst Connecticut on weekend mornings. Graduating from Quinnipiac University in 2016, she served as the editor-in-chief of The Quinnipiac Chronicle, the weekly, student-run newspaper. She is a huge "Harry Potter" fan.