An “incredible” humanitarian aid effort at the Hallmuir POW Ukrainian Chapel near Lockerbie has seen thousands of items donated.
Mary MacRae, whose parents were both Ukrainian and settled in Annan, helps look after the site and brought it into action as a collection point for aid after the Russian invasion.
After making an appeal for donations and volunteers via the Standard’s social media, she manned Hallmuir for a couple of hours a day but the volume of goods arriving meant it was all hands on deck from the weekend onwards.
She said: “I still cannot believe how much stuff has been donated and thank everyone from the bottom of my heart,
“This means so much to the Ukrainian community here in Dumfries and Galloway who, like me have family and friends in Ukraine. And it will mean even more to the Ukrainian refugees.
“It has snowballed beyond my wildest dreams. We have had so many business step forward to help from DS Smith donating cardboard boxes for packaging to McBurnie Removals who have boxes and tape for packing and Oakbank Services.
“And we are grateful to A.W. Jenkinson who have filled two trailers with all the items that are going out to Poland.
“The amount of people who just turned up to help has been staggering. We had Dumfriesshire MP David Mundell and Bryan Armstrong arrive with armfuls of new sleeping bags for the refugees and Dumfriesshire Lord Lieutenant Fiona Armstrong brought donations and then ended up staying to help sort and bag. It has been incredible.”
