A community centre has been packed full of donations for Ukrainian refugees after a young staff member felt compelled to help families fleeing war.
Aaron Price said he couldn't stand back and watch the horrific scenes emerging from Ukraine without doing something to help. So the administrator for Birtley Community Centre took to the centre's Facebook page, calling on the community to drop off donations of essential items.
Within hours of his post, the 22-year-old was overwhelmed by the response of the local community, who quickly gathered donations of clothes, toiletries, nappies and medical supplies ready to be delivered to the border of Poland and Ukraine. The donations soon filled the centre and Aaron had to begin pilling packages into the corridors.
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Aaron said: "It's absolutely incredible how the Birtley community has rallied together. They say that the North East is one of the most wonderful places in the United Kingdom because we're so giving.
"The community has been so divided since Covid and I think the whole thing with Ukraine has brought the community spirit back. It's the greatest response the community has had since the beginning of Covid."
"I'm constantly reading the news and I'm quite a worrisome person and I have a big heart when it comes to the people of Birtley. I've always been for the benefit of everybody around me and it was one Sunday night when I thought no-one is going to step up and say 'we're doing this in our local community.'"
He added: "I didn't even go past the management, I just put on the Facebook page that we were taking donations, acting on impulse. At the time I didn't know how I was going to organise all the transport, but it has been working in my favour because people have been coming forward and saying they can provide stuff."
Baltica NE, a deep steam cleaning and ozoning business, then picked up the donations and filled vans to be taken to Newcastle Polish Centre to then be transported to Poland. The donations have now been sent directly to support refugees along with collections from elsewhere in the North East, including Whitley Bay and Kibblesworth.
Aaron said within the space of one hour the community centre shop had been "piled sky-high" with donations from the community. As as donations continued to pour in staff had to organise for donations to be stored in additional rooms, as well as corridors.
A huge team of volunteers then came to the centre, located on Ravensworth Road, to help sort donations into categories and tape them up into boxes.
Aaron added: "There's babies being born in shelters underground and they desperately need stuff. They're not prepared because they've had to flee and haven't had the time to gather anything that they need.
"The Polish parish community are in direct contact with their friends over in Poland and they're asking people when they arrive in Poland what things they need and then that's being fed back to us so we can make sure they're getting the stuff they need."
