Belleville, Ont., residents Mark and Trish Hall don’t know exactly when the Kupyniak family will arrive but the couple are preparing for that day.
Natalia and Yurii Kupyniak have three children aged 14, six and 10 months old.
“They are currently residing on the very edge of Poland. They’re staying at a farm, it’s a one bedroom. It’s nothing like we would ever know,” said Trish Hall.
Watching the war unfold in Ukraine, the Belleville couple wanted to find a way to help.
They connected with the Kupyniaks through a website designed to connect refugees with hosts.
Even with the website, Trish Hall says connecting with the Kupyniaks has been challenging.
“The family doesn’t have any electronics other than a computer that they are able to access every other day. We email, correspond just to be able to hear from them and ask how the kids are doing,” said Trish Hall.
The Halls, along with others in the community, have banded together to rent a full apartment for the family for the next year.
“We put the appeal out, and within three or four hours we had nine other families joining us. So it’s basically a group of 10 families. We just took the rent for the year and divided it by 10 and everybody agreed to kick in a 10th,” said Mark Hall.
Local businesses are helping out. Mama Duck’s Diaper Service will be providing free diapers for their 10 month old and Yurii Kupyniak will have a job waiting for him when he arrives as well.
“We have an amazing friend,” said Mark Hall. “His name is Jim Noble, he owns Noble Granite in Stirling. He has already offered the man a job.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the Kupyniak’s and after they’re settled in Belleville, while regular donations will be dropped off at the Albert College parking lot, where a trailer will be set up to accept contributions from the community.
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