ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — With the ongoing war in Ukraine, people all around the world — including in Central Florida — are stepping up and collecting donations to support the Ukrainians as they fight for their homes.

Vasyl Lushchyk said he spends all his free time sorting and packing. Inside St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Catholic Church in Apopka, he organizes donations to be sent to his homeland.  

“We have to help people," Lushchyk said. "They lost their homes. They lost their families, everything." 

As a proud Ukrainian, it is a task to which Lushchyk feels called.  

“I don't think that anybody from the community will deny that we will try to help Ukraine so we just started on like the second day," he said. "We just had a meeting saying we have to help, and that is where we started to collect, even not knowing where we would deliver those items we started to collect.”

Since then, donations have come pouring in from all over the community. It means a lot to Lushchyk, as almost his entire family is still in Ukraine. He moved here three years ago in search of better medical care for his wife, who had cancer.

With all the destruction going on in Ukraine, he said medical supplies are now what Ukrainians need most, making that his top priority. While he lost his wife last year, Lushchyk is a proud father of three, with his oldest following in his footsteps by studying mathematics at the same university he did. 

"She went back to Ukraine to study for college, so I am really proud of her," Lushchyk said.

But this turmoil made his heart stop as his daughter’s flight back to Florida was canceled days before the invasion.

“As a dad, I felt really scary because I knew that she might want to stay there because all of her friends and her relatives were there," he said.

While she made it back to Florida, most of his friends and family decided to stay and fight for his country, giving him extra motivation to get these supplies. Once he and the volunteers finish packing, they will be sent to Poland and then taken over the border. 

“Nobody wants to unveil all the routes, but yeah, I do believe everything will be delivered to the people in need actually,” he said.

It’s a task he plans to continue for as long as his country needs help. While he’s in Central Florida, his heart is in Ukraine.

“If I could, I would be there," Lushchyk said. "I would be helping, you know. I am helping here as much as I can."

​Lushchyk and the other volunteers are always looking for more donations and helping hands. They are only accepting certain types of donations, listed here.