SKANEATELES — As of this writing, Dan Lemp, a Skaneateles graduate, is living in Poland with his girlfriend, Lera.
But prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lemp had been residing in Kyiv for more than a year before moving to Lviv.
On the morning of Feb. 24, Lera told Lemp that Russia was invading and they quickly made plans to flee and got across the border in Poland.
“She had gotten a call from her mother. In one of the most surreal moments of my life, she told me, ‘So, Russia has attacked. Not only in Donbas, but on our side,’” Lemp recalled. “[I was] shocked, it was hard to wrap my head around what she was telling me.”
The couple had moved to Lviv a few weeks before the invasion when they first heard the rumblings of war.
“We felt that Russia was going to attack in Donbas, and felt it was very unlikely to spread outside that area. Not to Kyiv, and certainly nowhere west of Kyiv. But we agreed that the moment any fighting broke out of the Donbas region, we would immediately leave to Poland,” Lemp said.
After the call came from Lera’s mother, Lemp said it didn’t take long for the couple to begin making plans.
“So when we got the call on that awful morning, we didn’t need to say a word to each other, we just automatically started getting ready,” Lemp said.
Lera immediately got on the computer to book train tickets while Lemp started packing suitcases of clothes.
“Bomb sirens were blaring through the city,” Lemp said. “In previous weeks, we had already stocked up on food, water, cash, and firewood with her family in mind, thinking that they could come from Eastern Ukraine if the war started and we’d know they at least have survival necessities ready. But I went to the store a couple times to stock up on more jugs of water. We filled every single glass, bowl, and jar in the apartment with water from the sink so that if the Russian army did to Lviv what they are doing to Mariupol, there would be enough water to last as long as possible.”
While this was admittedly a trying time, Lemp said dealing with the immediate tasks outweighed emotional responses in the heat of the moment.
“I didn’t cry or spend too much energy on feeling nervous after the initial panic subsided,” he said. “We didn’t have time for that — emotions would have to wait until we made it to safety. I didn’t cry until a week after the war started when an animal shelter we used to volunteer at outside Kyiv was bombed. Then I finally broke down.”
Lemp said a friend drove the couple to the train station. It was a five-hour wait as the train was delayed.
“We had no idea what Russia’s plan of attack was, so we were just hoping they weren’t going to bomb Lviv while we were waiting,” Lemp said. “It turns out our wait was very small. Our friends who waited a day or two to leave had to wait up to 48 hours at the border in order to cross.”
Even as Lemp and Lera were trying to make their way to Poland, Lemp took note of what others around him were experiencing.
“Eventually, the train arrived and we got on the first car,” he said. “We sat across from a boy, maybe 16 or 17 years old. His grandmother waited on the other side of the window on the platform, waiting for the train to leave, waiting to see him off, maybe for the last time. They each put their hands to the window as the train pulled away, like a scene from an old war movie that I never thought I’d have to see in real life.”
Lemp’s was the first train out of the country and when it arrived in Poland, journalists and cameras were waiting.
“Our friends texted us that they were glad we were safe, because they saw us get to Poland on the news,” Lemp said. “While we were grateful to be safe, but Lera’s family, and many of our friends, were still back in Ukraine, and we worried for them every day. We still do. Fortunately, Lera’s mom at least finally made it out to Lviv, which is relatively safer for the moment.”
Before the invasion
It may sound funny to say, but in a roundabout way it was COVID that took Lemp from Skaneateles to Ukraine.
“About five months after the pandemic started, Ukraine was one of the only countries open to travelers,” Lemp said. “I was grateful for the chance to spend five months with my parents, for real, but I needed to go have an adventure. Well, I got one. I bumped into a beautiful girl named Lera on the street in Kyiv. We went dancing, one thing lead to another, we fell in love, and a couple months later I moved to Ukraine. We both work remotely, so making such a change was possible.”
After meeting Lera, Lemp said the couple lived in Kyiv for a little over a year before moving to Lviv just a few weeks before the Russian invasion.
Lemp said he was taken by all that he saw and experienced. The people, the places, the rich culture and diverse lifestyles of the country all struck him as he explored his new home.
“Ukrainian culture is interesting and surprising,” he said. “I expected to run into more of a stereotypical, cold, rude Soviet culture. Instead, I found most people to be exceptionally warm and welcoming. The food I expected to be bland and boring, but Ukrainian food is actually delicious. Extremely flavorful and dynamic. The art and music scene was thriving, edgy, and extremely creative. I, among others, describe it as the next Berlin. An absolute hidden gem of Europe.”
Like Berlin, Lemp found Ukraine and Kyiv to be a cultural melting pot, a place where people from all over the world could be found as well as their food and their culture as well as a land rich with diverse landscapes that all captured Lemp’s heart.
“I was also shocked at how international the city was,” Lemp said. “I knew next to nothing about the city before I went for the first time, and was shocked to find one of the best food scenes in Europe, with cuisines from every corner of the global. Home-made, hand pulled Chinese noodles. Indian curries, burgers, Vietnamese, Mexican food that rivals anything I’ve eaten in Mexico. Ukraine is the largest country in Europe with vast, dynamic landscapes all the way from the mystical Carpathian mountains in the west, to opulent seaside cities like Odessa, and the darkest richest soil I’ve ever seen.”
While the cities wowed Lemp, he was impressed with the rural areas as well.
“Seeing the soil farmland on the train from Kyiv to Zaporizhzhya, Lera’s hometown, is wild. The dirt there is not brown, it is completely pitch black. Unbelievably rich,” Lemp said. “Apparently 25% of all of the highest grade soil in the world is in Ukraine, a fact they are very proud of. On top of that, the country even has a desert of all things.”
As Lemp was experiencing all that Ukraine had to offer, there was no denying that something was building and concerns about what Russia might do hung heavy on the minds of many people. But in some ways Lemp said life went on as normal.
“From what I could tell, there was a very subtle air of anxiety about the war, but most people didn’t really believe it was going to happen, at least outside of the Donbas region,” Lemp said. “So life went on exactly as normal. The day before the invasion, we were planning on going on a date to a cat cafe in Lviv the next day. We bought tickets for a trip to Slovenia in early March. Sure, intellectually we accepted that fleeing the country at some point might be necessary, but that didn’t really compute as being real.”
But that did not stop Lemp or anyone else from trying to be prepared.
“A full-scale invasion felt pretty much off the table for most people, ourselves included,” he said. “We prepared supplies for a worst-case scenario, but I really didn’t believe it was going to be necessary. We moved out of Kyiv because it felt like there would be more unrest, not because we thought Russia would bomb it. The idea of Russia invading Kyiv itself felt like a 5% possibility, and anything west of that felt like a less than 1% possibility. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking.”
Help from Poland
Once Lemp and Lera made their way to Poland, they deiced that they needed to do what they could to help those still trying to get out of Ukraine.
“Me and a group of friends have been trying to help where we can,” Lemp said. “We raised a little money and booked an apartment on Airbnb with seven beds to offer to any Ukrainians we knew who needed help. I reached out to my networks of people to find out who had space to host refugees, either short-term or long-term. So when we would find out that friends or friends of friends were coming into Poland, we could do our best to at least set them up so they’d have some basic food supplies and a roof over their head. Many people arrived at the train station in Krakow after 48 straight hours on an overpacked train and had no idea where they would stay. When we heard about those people, whenever possible, we would call around our groups of contacts and see who could take them in.”
While Lemp and others are doing all they can to help, he said it is challenging to meet the need that exists right now.
“We ended up taking in a family to the apartment we rented for a month,” Lemp said. “But as of today, they still don’t know where they are going to go in a week. Just today I met them to give them a little bit of extra cash we had raised, and they were in tears. They don’t want to ask for much, but they are very much in need. Really, right now, every little bit anyone can do helps. Ukraine, for all its majesty, is one of the poorest countries in Europe, and many were struggling to get by even before the war. Five dollars for them can make a small, but very real difference. Fortunately, there is a united global effort to provide humanitarian aide to Ukrainian refugees, but it is hard to fully meet the needs of 3.5 million people suddenly without homes or jobs.”
But as the Ukrainian people face these challenges, Lemp said the people of Poland are doing all they can to lend a helping hand.
“People are very welcoming and supportive of Ukrainians here, absolutely,” he said. “The Polish and the Ukrainians have a very close bond with each other. They see their neighbors in need, and they want to do anything they can to help. Life in Krakow feels generally normal, but if you ask Polish people about the war, they are nervous. They are definitely worried that Putin will escalate the war and attack Poland.”
At home
Since the invasion, anyone living in Central new York has likely seen Ukrainian flags and other signs of support in shops and neighborhoods.
This area has a large Ukrainian population and many people who share a lineage that includes easter European roots in Ukraine and Poland among other countries.
Dan’s mother, Christy, has been in constant contact with her son since the invasion began and knew that she wanted to do something to help where she could.
“Most people are upset and feel helpless about the unspeakable horrors that are happening in Ukraine,” Christy said. “This particular battle is hitting us closer to home as we have a large Ukrainian population in CNY; many of us know people with family and friends there. Regardless, this is a humanitarian crisis that is hitting us in the gut; we are a country that is strong, free and empathetic to our fellow man. We cannot sit still and watch families and children torn apart and murdered in a senseless war.”
Christy had an idea to hang blue and yellow ribbons on her property to show support and then thought it might be worth reaching out to the village and chamber of commerce among other to see if there would be interest in a community wide show of support.
This helped Christy connect with Chris Legg and the Sunrise Rotary Club.
“Mayor Mary Sennett and the chamber directed me to Chris Legg for advice on how to proceed,” Christy said. “He pointed out that blue and yellow are Laker colors, and people might be confused about the message. Chris, being a Skaneateles Sunrise Rotary member, he suggested we direct funds to ShelterBox, which was already set up on their website to contribute to. We could substitute Ukrainian flags for ribbons and advertise with posters and banners.”
Legg said after speaking with Christy he knew this was an effort Sunrise Rotary would be happy to lend its support to as this kind of project represents all Rotary stands for with a focus on the concept of service above self.
In addition the club began directing funds to ShelterBox. These kits are being sent to Poland to help provide emergency shelter for displaced people.
“From Winterfest 2022 proceeds, SSRC had just sent a $1,000 donation to ShelterBox USA for a kit to support displaced Ukrainians,” Legg said. “SSRC has funded kits for victims of hurricanes and earthquakes previously. ShelterBox, a 20 plus year, international NGO, sends volunteers and kits tailored to support the emergency circumstances to the crisis area. Each kit supports 10 people for six months in emergency shelter. Two people can carry each kit, typically a tent, ground mats, blankets, cookware, clothing, tools, etc. We suggested we apply her idea to send more kits to Ukrainians in crisis.”
Legg said Christy and her son also spoke with the Sunrise Rotary via Zoom and this gave the club’s members a perspective that others watching on television or reading about the invasion might not have.
“They shared their experience as the war began,” Legg said. “Dan’s firsthand account helped us better understand the sequence of events experienced by Ukrainians. He described their rapid, early morning departure. He labeled the scenes in the train station and on the train as surreal, as if it was a movie.”
Working together with Farm Boy Graphics, Christy and the Sunrise Rotary have created various signs and banners that are on display in Skaneateles and a banner has been placed in Syracuse as well.
“Chris worked with Farm Boy Graphics to produce A frame signs for several locations in the village and a banner on the pier that tells people how to donate to ShelterBox,” Christy said. “He also worked with the chamber to have flyers sent to the merchants that can be posted in their stores. I included Dan’s story and links to purchase Ukrainian flags if they choose. The signs and flyers have QR codes and links to the ShelterBox donation site.”
Legg and Christy said they were both moved by the show of support they have already seen locally.
“Wes Davis, Skaneateles Jewelry, made a very generous, unsolicited offer to encourage more donations,” Legg said. “Skaneateles Jewelry donated 10 mother-child silver pendants valued $170. A random draw among all SSRC donors who submit donations during March 14-April 27 will identify the winners. Notified by email on April 28, winners can visit the Skaneateles Jewelry shop in Skaneateles to pick up their pendant prior to Mother’s Day, May 8. Since starting March 14, people have donated more than $4,000 so far. SSRC already donated four ShelterBoxes from the donations in addition to the one donated from Skaneateles Winterfest 2022 proceeds. The five ShelterBoxes donated so far are providing emergency shelter for up to 50 displaced Ukrainians.”
Christy said the show of support for what started as the grain of an idea for her personally to what it has become with the help of the village, Sunrise Rotary, business community and many others is overwhelming and speaks to the generosity of the local community.
“This community is incredibly generous and giving to many local causes; this is a way to show our support to people that are a lot like us but happen to live in another country,” she said. “The similarities of pride, love of family and culture, our pets, and beautiful surroundings are things we have in common. All of these common comforts are being ripped away from them and this is our chance to help in some way.”
As of March 25, Legg said $4,575 has been donated and five ShelterBoxes to aid 50 displaced Ukrainians in and near Ukraine have been purchased with these funds. Legg said the next $425 will allow for a sixth ShelterBox to be donated.
Perspective from Poland
While Lemp said many people are doing all they can to support their neighbors it is a struggle and at the end of the day, along with medical supplies and other necessities, financial support makes all the difference for people who have been displaced.
“Money makes the biggest difference,” Lemp said. “There is need in so many directions, so anything a person can donate to help fill that need is amazing. There are charities for the Ukrainian army, like Save Life and Come Back Alive. Meanwhile there are charities to support refugees, such as ShelterBox. The need is vast, and every little piece helps.”
While Lemp and Lera are doing all they can to help in Poland, Lemp said the support from home means so much to so many people and is helping in more ways than people at home may even know.
“I’m very proud of my mom, Rotary, and the people of Skaneateles for helping Ukraine in this time of great need,” Lemp said. “Ukrainians and those of us who know Ukrainians are really, really, really grateful for the support coming in from the world. Every person who donates and organizes is a hero, contributing their part to the righteous side of the great battle of our lifetime. The light can win against this atrocious darkness, but only if we work to keep it shining. Know that if you donate, you are giving a mother another day to feed her children, a frightened soul a place to sleep, and a brave soldier a chance to fight another day to protect us all.”
For more information on how to help visit skansunriserotary.square.site, shelterboxusa.org/ or facebook.com/SkaneatelesWinterfest/. Checks can be mailed to Skaneateles Sunrise Rotary Club address as PO Box 871 Skaneateles NY 13152.
