Morden's co-owner of Deasil Custom Sewing Inc (DCS) Cheryl Digby was thrilled to be asked by the Red Cross to sew some fire-resistant blankets to send to Ukraine for civilian volunteers. A company in Winnipeg, Ptex, was willing to give a "steeply discounted rate" (according to an email sent to Paul, the owner of Ptex) on 1200 yards of fire-resistant black fleece fabric for the project, for Deasil staff and local volunteers from Morden, to make the blankets.
Digby said plans changed when a mix-up occurred and the Red Cross was unable to send the blankets due to sizing issues, among other things. Then she went to the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to see if they wanted to send them. While they, too, were unable to send them, they did help with bailing them and getting them ready to ship. So, she contacted a local church, Gospel Faith Church, and they agreed to send them through a mission they are affiliated with, called "Samaritan Aid Ministries (SAM)" which runs out of Vernon B.C.
The project resumed and on August 29, 2022, 500 blankets, along with medical bags and other items, were sent to Ukraine to be used by volunteers. Three containers arrived in Ukraine January 19, 2023.
Digby emotionally read an email she received from SAM to Paul. SAM had been contacted by the recipients of the blankets in Ukraine.
"I got a call today from the mission in BC with a huge 'Thank you for your support' and I think it is good to hear the blankets are a big help for them."
It went on to quote the message from Ukraine.
"The brother also asked me to forward a big thank you for the fire-resistant blankets we received from MB, which we sent to them in the first 3 containers. At that time, they had given some of these blankets to some men of the volunteer brigades. We asked them to please distribute them among the civilians. He received a call from Kherson today. A big building where these volunteers had been sleeping was attacked with firebombs at night. The guys who had been sleeping under these fire-resistant blankets had time to wrap themselves into these blankets and escape the fire. And most of them survived. Other ones, who had been sleeping under normal blankets, were not that fortunate. After they escaped the fire, they remembered who had given them these blankets and called Humanitarian Hub Rivne to forward a huge thank you for these fire-resistant blankets."
Digby admitted she thought the gesture of sending the blankets was like sending a warm hug to Ukraine, she never expected the blankets to save lives.
"We could have given up when the Red Cross didn't want our blankets, they were the wrong color or the wrong size, but we didn't. The supplier out of Winnipeg was so generous supplying the fabric at a discounted price, and then we'll had our local volunteers come in and sew them, and then we had a local church group help us find a way to get them to Ukraine. There are so many hands along the way to help to make this happen. And then at the end, the people who survived the bombing would take the time to thank us for those blankets..." her voice trailed off, "It blows me away. They're just trying to survive there, and here they are reaching out to us to thank us for the blankets."
Viktor Kunz, a member of the Gospel Faith Church, played a key role in facilitating the shipping of the blankets to Ukraine through SAM. A friend of his from Chilliwack BC, was doing business in the area and was passing through Manitoba on his way back to BC with an empty van. He offered to pick up the blankets and drop them off in Vernon.
Kunz described his feelings upon hearing how the blankets saved lives.
"It feels very good. Instead of supporting the war, you helped innocent people. That was good and I never thought it would turn out like that, and that we got feedback like that from the people there. They were looking for where those blankets came from, to find, 'Where is the source?' And I think it's huge for Cheryl Digby and her company and all the people that voluntarily made those blankets. I think it's good for them too. They feel good about it too."
Kunz shared more about the background of the Gospel Faith Church.
"We're an immigrant church, a German-Russian Church. That's how we are. We have backgrounds, some of us lived in Russia, some in Kazakhstan, some in other countries like Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. In our church, we have people from every nation, and we get along in peace. So that's good thing."
He explained why his church would help in this way.
"I think the war is there and this is political. But for us as human beings, here, we have maybe the same background or similar back background. We should still live in peace and support each other because today I have a hardship, you help me, and tomorrow you have a hardship, I help you. That's how we get along in this life."
