Family firm back from long trip to donate goods to Ukraine with another lined up
Colleagues from a family firm have made it home safely after a long trip to Poland to distribute Shropshire-donated goods to Ukrainian refugees.
The team at A.R. Richards, a family-run skip and waste management business in Market Drayton, travelled 1,092 miles to Poland last week to drop off Shropshire-donated goods.
They arrived on Thursday and all donations were "gratefully received", especially the baby supplies, which were being provided to infants as soon as the goods were offloaded.
After a long journey back the team made it home safely at midnight on Friday and will be waiting to take over another load of donated goods soon.
Sam Richards, financial director at A.R. Richards, said: "We will be sending another load soon and have been given a list of supplies required from the charity.
"Going forward we will be accepting donations of: torches, batteries, power banks, first aid kits, blankets/thermal blankets, personal care products, towels, food in cans/long term food products, nappies, baby wipes and baby food.
“We never thought for one minute we would see this conflict in our lifetime, and we knew we needed to help in some way.
"A.R. Richards Ltd is fortunate enough to have the facilities, manpower and logistics to be in a position to help.
"We put an alert out to all customers, suppliers, staff and social media (and pulled in a few favours) to ask for donations and contributions towards an artic wagon load of supplies to be delivered to Kalisz, Poland.
"Teams of staff and volunteers gave up their time to help sort all the donations into categories and label them up ready to be loaded on Tuesday.
"With everybody’s help we exceeded our expectations and filled an artic wagon, a van and trailer with much needed essentials - 544 bags and 26 pallet boxes.
"Our site opening times for donation drop-offs are 7am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 7am to 1pm on Saturdays.
"We cannot thank everyone enough for all their help and donations. We will keep everyone updated via our social media accounts.”
To make a donation, please visit the drop-off point at Tern Hill, TF9 2JJ at the times and dates listed above.
