Icons on Ammo Boxes: Seven Galleries Show Ukrainian Art at NYC Art Week Preview

On September 4, on the eve of the beginning of  Art Week in NYC, I went to a gallery in Chelsea for the Volta Art Fair. Dozens of galleries exhibiting and thousands of works of art on display.  Seven of the galleries featured art by Ukrainians, both in Ukraine and from the Ukrainian diaspora.  

On gallery featured several Orthodox icons painted on ammo crates.  I saw the icons just passing and then looked closer at the one on the right in the photo above and noticed latches that are used on NATO machine gun ammo crates.  Ukrainian soldiers create these icons.  It was a lovely display of faith expressed in art in a country invaded by a tyrant.

Below are a sampling of what was on display by Ukrainian artists.

And one more icon

Fetterman Backs Ukraine 100%! Ukraine Action Summit, Washington DC

 

Members of the Pennsylvania delegation of the Ukraine Action Summit 

on the steps of the Senate with Senator John Fetterman (middle, last row)

On Monday and Tuesday, I was in Washington DC at the Ukraine Action Summit: more than 500 people and dozens of organizations in the US Capitol to support Ukraine.  I was a member of the Pennsylvania delegation, more than twenty people from around the commonwealth advocating for Ukraine. 

Senator John Fetterman talking to our delegation.

Senator John Fetterman was our last visit on Tuesday. He was the most full-throated in his support of Ukraine among all of the lawmakers we spoke with during the visit. He said he will support Ukraine in every way he can as long as he is in office.  It was a very positive end to two days of meetings.

Our delegation at Congressman Scott Perry's office

On the first day, I was part of the group that visited the office Congressman Scott Perry. We met with a member of his staff. Perry was not in the office.  In 2009-10 Perry was my battalion commander in Iraq, where we deployed for a year. Perry is a Blackhawk pilot. I worked in his headquarters and flew on his aircraft.  Perry is the head of the Freedom Caucus. We completely disagree on politics, including on aid for Ukraine, but he was a good commander. I wrote about him in 2010. 

Our delegation at Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan's office

We met with a staff member in the office of Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan. She is very supportive of aid for Ukraine and behind Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion. Houlahan's grandfather (then 4 years old) survived The Holocaust because he was hidden from the Nazis by a Ukrainian Catholic Priest in Lviv. Houlahan keeps her grandfather's teddy bear in a display case in her office.

Another delightful meeting was with Mike Kelly, the Congressman from the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. He said he will support all aid for Ukraine and was especially concerned about the children kidnapped from their families in Ukraine into Russia for re-education. 

During the two days, there were wry comments from the representatives and their staffs about the how the House of Representatives was unable to do anything without a speaker.  All of the legislation we hope will pass is frozen without a speaker. Then on Wednesday, the day after our meetings, the Republican party voted in a new speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. 

On the one hand, it is good to have a speaker so something can get done, but on the other hand, the new speaker has an F rating on support for Ukraine and was deeply involved in trying to overthrow the 2020 election. 

The fight for support continues here in America while Ukrainians give their lives every day to defend their homes and nation. 

Back to Packing Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKs) for Ukraine

 

#RazomforUkraine volunteers at the end of the day Saturday.

We set a new record of 3,063 IFAKS made and shipped in one day.

After a month in Europe I returned to volunteering with #RazomforUkraine putting together Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKs) for soldiers and emergency medical teams in Ukraine.  On Saturday we set a new record of 3,063 IFAKs in one day.  I started volunteering in late March.  Since shortly after the Russian invasion began, Razom has shipped more than 71,000 IFAKs to Ukraine. 

From the moment I entered the building I was reconnecting with people I really enjoy working with. 

Olena and Yuliia

Sergiy with the sign marking the new record

I plan to be back two days next week and as often as I can until I travel again. 

In April and May I wrote about how much I like volunteering with Razom and about some of my fellow volunteers. 

A post about Sergiy Blednov

How much I like working at Razom

Talking about musicals and life while we work

A volunteer flying to Ukraine on February 24

Making jokes while packing IFAKs

#RazomforUkraine Volunteer Sergiy Blednov

 

Sergiy Blednov restocking 

the combat medical kit assembly line

Sergiy Blednov was one of the first people I met at #RazomforUkraine when I started volunteering in March.  I noticed him right away because he was carrying heavy boxes of supplies to refill the assembly line where we made combat medical kits for soldiers and larger backpacks for medics. 

During the first days I volunteered I was part of a group that was unwrapping thousands of tourniquets for the assembly line. 

The assembly line at #RazomforUkraine. 

To the right in the foreground is Olena Blyednova, Sergiy's wife.

On the third Saturday I worked, there were more than 20 volunteers and the boxes on the three assembly lines emptied fast. I had learned where most things were stored over the previous two weeks. When Sergiy went to another part of the warehouse, I started refilling boxes.  When Sergiy came back, he saw me filling a box and said, "You are taking my job."

I said, "No, I am Sergiy two. Ya Sergiy Dva!"

He caught the joke right tossed it back, "Sergiy two, or Sergiy too?"  

"Takosh i dva!" I said getting near the limits of my ability to speak Ukrainian, "too and two."

From then on Sergiy and I both filled boxes.  And made many jokes.   

Sergiy and his wife and daughter emigrated to America in 2016.  His son followed in 2019. Before coming to America Sergiy worked in aircraft manufacturing in Kharkiv.  He later worked in software and programming. He now works for a software company based in Arizona which allows him to volunteer with Razom in the morning then go to work in the afternoon when the day begins in California.  

In three weeks I hope to return to volunteering with Razom. Sadly, it seems volunteers will still be needed to make medical kits for Ukraine. 

Flying to Kyiv from New York on February 24--The Flight Ended in Warsaw

Today at #RazomforUkriane, I worked with a Nikita.  He is a 36-year-old project manager for a U.S.-based utility company. As we assembled IFAKs (Individual First Aid Kits) he told me that on February 24 (The day the Russian Army invaded Ukraine) he was on a flight from New York to Kyiv. As the plane neared Ukraine it was diverted and landed in Warsaw.

"I was going to Kiev on Feb 24 to see Louis CK stand up concert which was supposed to be on February 25," he said. "I also do stand up comedy when I get a chance in my personal life and since war started we had a charity concert to raise funds which we sent to Ukraine." He has I also donated funds directly to people I know in Ukraine and other organizations.

Nikita spent the next week in Poland helping the refugees who began crossing the border into Poland within hours of the start of the war.  At one point he rented a car and drove refugees from the border to where they knew someone or wherever they wanted to go.  He helped with food and supplies, then returned to America and his job. 

He is 36 years old.  He emigrated to America from the Russian Federation in 2000 with his family when he was 14. "I am from Russia, but my heart is with Ukraine," he said.  "I have lots of friends in Ukraine and I love that country with all my heart and I don't support Russia in any way and I am 100% with the Ukraine."

Nikita makes Instagram videos in English and in Russian under the name: forced2disagree.  

"The videos are titled "Less is More" and are they are about people around the world," he said. "I tell a short story about a person that I personally met or know. And I can't wait to go to Ukraine and document many stories there and help in other ways as well."

 

Talking Musicals, Radio, War Movies and Tanks at #RazomforUkraine

 

I arrived late for my shift at Razom today. PA Route 222 stopped for miles outside of Ephrata.  I slithered off the highway in the breakdown lane and got to the PA Turnpike by a half-dozen back roads I know.  

Today was a small group, just eight of us in the afternoon.  Together with the morning crew we made many hundreds of Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKs). 

I spent most of the afternoon stuffing Halo chest seals into the kit at the beginning of the line. It's sad to think of the need for these bandages, but good to be able to help get them where they are needed.  

Toward the end of the day, I worked opposite Joey (in the foreground of the lower picture).  He works in radio doing voice overs and running several radio-related businesses.  We talked about working in radio, then in theater, then he told me he had performed at the Fulton Theater in Lancaster when he was going to Temple University.  

We joked a lot about "Footloose." I said it was one of the worst movies I had ever seen, but with the best soundtrack.  Joey had been to an annual festival in Payson, Utah, the town where the movie was filmed. The town is called Bomont in the movie. I told Joey I had seen the musical version of "Footloose" in the Fulton Theater and really liked it--the musical was much better than the movie and the songs were even better live.

We then talked about war movies, which ones we liked and which ones we didn't.  We are both fans of the HBO Series "Band of Brothers"and "The Pacific."   

Several of us will be back tomorrow. Part of a larger crew.  The biggest crew is always on Saturday.  

Making Jokes While Packing Medical Supplies for Ukraine

 

Four days last week, I was working in a warehouse in New Jersey, part of a team of #RazomforUkraine volunteers assembling Individual First Aid Kits (IFAKs). In total we packed more than 8,000 IFAKs last week for shipment to Ukraine during the week. We work hard filling the small packs with medical supplies, but we also have fun while we work.

On Wednesday last week, I was refilling boxes with a dozen different kinds of medical supplies while ten people assembled IFAKs.  A new volunteer noticed me grabbing boxes of supplies from different places and said, "Do you have x-ray vision or something?  How do you know what is in all these boxes?"  

I laughed and said I was there enough to know where everything is.  Which led to a the question, "What superpower would you want?  Pick one."

We then got into a discussion of the social downside of having super powers: other people get envious; you lose friends; your family starts to wonder why you are so special....

On Friday at the end of the day we were setting up three lines for assembling IFAKs.  As we lined up the supplies and boxes on the pallets, we started talking about the lines competing about who is fastest.  I was telling one of the guys that if this were the Army, the lines would definitely compete with each other and start insulting each other--saying their line was the best.  We started making up things the lines would say to each other.

On Saturday, one of the volunteers who I have worked with for weeks saw me opening boxes of cloth tape and asked if I was qualified for that job.  I told him that in the 1970s when the Army first got Photocopiers, I had to attend a three-hour class to be a qualified photocopier operator.  Once I had done that, I was definitely qualified to open rolls of tape.

Each day I volunteer, I leave the warehouse tired and happy to be part of doing to help Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invaders.  And most days, I am smiling about how much fun it is to be part of a team with a mission doing good.

The Joy of Work: Packing Supplies for Ukraine

Taking a break for a selfie 

"Neil, we need four-inch bandages."

"Hey, Neil, we need compress bandages."

"Neil, tourniquets."

During the past two weeks I have spent several days in a warehouse in New Jersey packing emergency medical kits for people in Ukraine.  If you want to donate or volunteer visit the Razom for Ukraine website.

Yesterday, I became the guy who refills the boxes for the assembly line putting together the combat medical kits. I worked unwrapping tourniquets until one of the boxes of bandages was low. Then would take a box off of a pallet, cut it open and switch the empty for a full box.

Our assembly line

Nearly sixty years ago, when I was 12 years old, I started working summers and Saturdays at Food Center Wholesale Grocers in Charlestown, Massachusetts.  I swept floors and picked up trash in the two-acre warehouse with dozen of truck and railcar loading doors and shelves more than thirty feet tall.  I earned $1.60 per hour, paid taxes and paid into the Social Security account I have been getting checks from for more than six years.

For two decades, I worked in warehouses, loading docks and was a soldier. I liked working with my hands, but at age 32 I got a job as a writer at an ad agency and left labor for white collar work.  

Coming back to lifting boxes after all these years has been delightful. When I leave, I am sore and dirty and have the good feeling of being a part of something worthwhile.  While we pack supplies, we laugh, joke, and share the joy of doing something will truly help people who are under attack by an evil regime.