ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. – Tony Pate from St. Clair Shores, Michigan started by collecting supplies in his garage and now he has delivered them to a hospital in Ukraine. He has plans to make another trip.
“I haven’t seen any defeatist attitude whatsoever, everyone’s incredibly strong, incredibly motivated,” Tony Pate said.
Tony Pate left his home on Sunday (March 6) and crossed into Ukraine on Monday (March 7). He’s in the city of Lviv. He was greeted by soldiers and the people who are under attack by Russia.
Tony Pate’s wife is from Ukraine. She is in St. Clair Shores collecting more medical supplies for Tony Pate to deliver on a second journey.
In this initial trip, they packed 11 suitcases and delivered the supplies to the Children’s Hospital on Wednesday. The supplies included 5,000 IV catheters. The hospital has been re-using the catheters that they did have.
“And, when we delivered that, the doctor just downright broke in tears and it was really a riveting moment,” Tony Pate said.
Others are asking Tony Pate for medic field bags for people who are fighting in the streets.
“We’ve grown from just thinking we’re gonna do some collecting in our garage and then find some way to donate it to someone to get there when in fact now we have a 40,000 square foot warehouse in Hamtramck. We’ve linked arms with a number of other organizations that were doing the same thing and a lot of us were grassroots a lot of us have just teamed up together,” Tony Pate said.
Tony Pate plans on returning home this weekend to gather more supplies to bring to Ukraine.
Read: St. Clair Shores family turns garage into donation hub to collect supplies for Ukraine