Safe haven, donation site provides basic essentials to Ukrainian refugees in Riverwoods
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Millions of Ukrainians are leaving their country. Some are ending up here in the Chicago area, with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
A Northwest suburban business is stepping up to help -- providing hundreds of refugees with basic supplies. CBS 2's Shardaa Gray takes us inside the store that's helping to rebuild their lives.
This unoccupied space in Riverwoods is now a safe haven for Ukrainian refugees to shop.
"When we have a kids come in and they see a bike here or they see a toy here and they squeal, we know we're doing it."
Irina Bakman is from Ukraine and one of Andy Niebur's employees at State Farm near Milwaukee and Deerfield Parkway.
They came up with the idea to start a large clothing and basic essentials charity for all the new Ukrainian refugee families who are flooding the Chicago area.
"Every day, we probably get 20 to 30 different families coming in here, packing up their cars," Niebur said.
They started this charity three weeks ago.
"Yesterday we had a lady, she came in and every time she went to a little department she'd come over and say thank you. Thank you so much," Bakman said.
They started a Facebook group called "Support Ukrainians in Chicagoland" -- which is where they get their donations.
"Within the first day, we had droves of people coming here dropping off anything from clothes, diapers, kitchen essentials, shoes, strollers," Niebur said.
Donations started flowing into the office to the point where they couldn't even move. So, they asked the landlord if they could occupy this space that hasn't been used in years.
"I'm glad that we got the space to do this and amazing volunteers that come in daily. And some of our volunteers are the people we're doing this for," he said.
One of those volunteers is Tetyana Berezovchuk. Bakman interprets for Berezovchuk who doesn't speak English -- she just escaped Kharkiv, Ukraine in March.
"It was a big help for their family and obviously she found it important enough to come back and help us every single day," Bakman said.
Niebur says they need more volunteers to help sort through items, as well as more clothing racks and hangers to put all the donated clothes on for refugees to look through.
Organizers are looking for a variety of items, including:
- New or gently used clothes for all genders and ages
- Home goods and furnishings
- Baby/kid's stuff
- Clothes/shoe racks