A new grassroots initiative is starting in Grey county to support Ukrainian refugees coming to the area.
Kevin Land, one of the individuals spearheading the Grey County Cares initiative, says the project seeks to raise funds through minimum $10 donations. The donations would buy participants a button to show they support and welcome refugees.
Land says the funds raised will go to the Markdale Rotary Club and they will be forming a committee to determine how the funds will be spent on a case by case basis to support Ukrainian refugees.
Land says the initial idea was to support the Red Cross in their efforts overseas in April. They realized in April, however, they could potentially do more for the refugees who were soon to arrive in local communities and keep funding going.
“There was some pretty strong interest locally and we had people who were going to help us out and we decided we would change the shift to those refugees who were in our community,” says Land. “On the day to day level, a smaller level, we created buttons which indicates Grey County cares.”
Land says while in the early stages of the initiative, they plan to keep it ongoing. They print 1,000 buttons at a time and will continue replenishing their supplies.
“We hope to see people all over our county wearing them,” says Land. “We are hoping to build a bit of cash, we started at the home show which was last weekend at Flesherton and we have 17 boxes out at the moment.”
Land says he is not sure how much they have raised to date, but estimates it to be a couple thousand. He adds as they go through a box, they would be raising a couple thousand dollars at a time.
“It’s an open ended initiative so the idea is basically you would just keep replenishing the buttons as you sell them,” says Land.
Land says they would like to challenge other communities to start their own initiative at the grassroots level as a way to help refugees coming to the area.
“It just struck me as an idea that could evolve and could expand. So any area that might want to create their own initiative, could do exactly this program.” says Land.
Land says they currently do not know many Ukrainian refugees are in the area, but it would be a job for the committee once it is formed.
He says they have reached out to a few people and would eventually like to have six people on the committee.
Land says this project comes as a result of the outrage over the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
“Certainly I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime that looks like this and it struck me that we would have repercussions locally, that would be people moving into our area and whatever we could do to somehow mitigate the crisis here for these people, struck me as a reasonable approach,” says Land.
Land says those who donate a minimum of $10 can receive a button at local businesses and retailers including, Highland Grounds, Speaking Volumes Books, Maxwell Meats, The Market Shoppe, Top of the Rock, Markdale Chamber of Commerce, Grey Highlands Municipal Office, Murray’s Printing, Grist Mill, Jolley’s Variety and Video, Annesley Church, and Grey Highlands Public Library.
