TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) –Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in February of 2022, about 143,500 Ukrainian refugees have come into the United States through the federal government’s “Uniting for Ukraine” (U4U) program which offers two years of humanitarian parole to Ukrainians who are sponsored by family, friends or total strangers. That represents about 52.5% of the applications that were filed.

In Michigan, there have been 3,518 Ukrainians who have come into the state through U4U for a safe harbor and some of them have landed in Traverse City. Overall, for the Grand Traverse county area, 150 applications have been filed.

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In June of 2022, the city commissioners in Traverse City voted on a resolution in support of Bethany Christian Services’ application to the U.S. Dept. of State to bring Ukrainian refugees to the city. The resolution said there were already about 700 Ukrainians living in the community that had settled there since the 1970’s “many of whom are the grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins of those seeking refuge.” The resolution also said that resettling them near family members would make meeting “basic human needs like housing, employment and education easier.”

Sandy Mascari-Devitt, who is the Refugee Resettlement Specialist and Case Manager with the non-profit organization, Bethany Christian Services in Traverse City, says she currently has 61 cases and about 125 clients that have come through the U4U program. With a total of 233 applications filed in the counties serviced by the office that Mascari-Devitt works in, and more on the way, the number of clients will continue to grow. Those counties include Grand Traverse, Benzie, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Missaukee and Wexford.

Mascari-Devitt is an advocate for both incoming refugee families and already resettled families. She assists them with unemployment issues, benefits through the federal and state government, and many other resources including learning english, transportation issues, and filling the gaps where needed.

One of those gaps is making sure that the refugees have the things they need to live their lives in northwestern lower Michigan whether they are staying with family members or are on their own and need to furnish an apartment. 

That’s where the refugee pantry at Traverse City’s Fellowship Church comes in. Mascari-Devitt and her supervisor Allie Burritt met with Pastor Jon Flikkema and a representative of the church in September of 2022 to talk about setting up a refugee pantry. After approval from the church council, they started moving items into the pantry in October and served clients on a limited basis until they brought the pantry into full service for clients in 2023.

Before the pantry got started, there were donated items in the offices and hallways of Bethany Christian Services which definitely wasn’t a sustainable plan. Mascari-Devitt, said, “We just had stuff everywhere.”

When asked how the pantry came to fruition, Mascari-Devitt said, “Well, I like to say that it’s God’s pantry, because I really, truly believe that Allie and I had this thought, this idea…but God brought it all together. God put Pastor Jon on my path through (wife) Laura, and I think he just brought everything together.”

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The Fellowship Church refugee pantry is open to the Ukrainians every other Tuesday between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. when they can come in to get clothes, dishes, blankets, toys, toiletries, diapers, shoes and much more – including a hug and a smile from church volunteers who are at the pantry. The refugees have even been able to pick up donated furniture from time to time when a match can be made between a refugee and a donor. Because of limited space in the pantry, larger donated items can’t be stored at the church so the organizers are looking for a space somewhere in Traverse City that could be a holding area.

All of Mascari-Devitts’ 125 Ukrainian clients at Bethany Christian Services are all eligible to use the pantry and she says it varies how many people show up on client pantry night to pick up supplies. It averages about 30 people but sometimes it can be as little as ten people and one time they had about 70 which she believes was a night when they had extra toys to hand out. 

There are no limits to the number of visits the refugees can make or the amount of items they can take with them. That comes in very handy due to the changing seasons. One month, they might come in for shorts and short-sleeved shirts and a few months later, they need scarves, boots and hats. In between client pantry nights, the volunteers use the time to sort through donations and get the pantry organized into groups of similar items to make it easier for the families to find things.

Mascari-Devitt says it is good to be able to provide the “must needs” like paper towels, toilet paper and other toiletries so that the families can use their money elsewhere to the best of their ability. There is even a church family, Larry and Sara Burkett, who donates fresh eggs to the program. Larry is the volunteer crew leader at the pantry, organizing volunteers and figuring out the work that needs to be done. He says about the pantry, “It’s been amazing, not just serving the people, it’s been an amazing experience getting to know them and learning about them and their hardships. Really, we’re building community with this group of people. It’s been very special.”

The supplies donated to the pantry come from different places – from the congregation of Fellowship church, the Ukrainian community, and the general public through word of mouth. There are also other churches and organizations that give Bethany Christian Services emergency funding and support. The organizers also try to match up needs with donors if there is a special request from a refugee family.

Mascari-Devitt says that she checks in with her clients at least once a month to see how they are doing and then every three months she meets with them face-to-face and does an update to the state system that contains the data on the refugees. 

She is very excited about the pantry and the impact it is having on the Ukrainian community in Traverse City. She said, “It’s making a difference in vulnerable people’s lives on a daily and weekly basis, and just providing them with sometimes the bare necessities…” She went on to say that she’s talked about it in front of the church that “it’s the first time I’ve ever really felt the phrase ‘the hands and feet of Christ’. And that’s exactly what every volunteer and our team at Bethany Christian Services…it’s what that pantry does. We walk alongside vulnerable people, but we help them towards stabilization and just bring small little joys into their lives.”

Mascari-Devitt added, “These are people that left everything they had behind. Children without toys. People without clothes. They came here with next to nothing. And to be able to watch a community come together and help total strangers is just an amazing blessing to be a part of.”

In March of this year, Fellowship Church members and pantry volunteers were invited to the Slavic Evangelical Church to break bread with the Ukrainian community and feast on homemade dishes native to their county. After the meal, Pastor Jon (pictured above) spoke to everyone through a young interpreter and said, “It’s been a blessing for us to have this pantry…We pray often for Ukraine, for peace to come to Ukraine…We pray for your family and friends and relatives who are in Ukraine still and we pray always for you as you are moving to Traverse City. And we were delighted when Sandy came to us with an opportunity to partner with Bethany Christian to serve you. Our church cares for you and we want to do what we can to help you as you move here and we’re glad to have this pantry…And we look forward and hope for more opportunities in the future where your community and our church community can continue to get to know each other.”

Vitaliy Pavlishin is a pastor at the Slavic Evangelical Church and a supporter of the pantry. He’s been seen unloading carloads of donations to the refugee pantry and is also a frequent interpreter between the Ukrainians and the Fellowship Church members. Pavlishin emigrated to the United States in 1991 in search of religious freedom. He arrived in Traverse City with his wife and two young children, sponsored by the Central United Methodist Church. They moved him and his family into a mobile home and helped get him a job. Today, he is the father of four and works at Sara Lee. He also helps other Ukrainians get jobs there and he’s even sponsored refugee families so they can come into the country.

Pavlishin told the Traverse City Record-Eagle that he loves Traverse City. He said, “It’s quiet, small, friendly – and so responsive. We’ve been overwhelmed by support since the war began in Ukraine.” His church has hosted benefit dinners and bake sales to big crowds and the donations keep coming in. He also said, “People in our community say Traverse City reminds them of Ukraine…the trees and lakes, the clean air. And the little purple flowers that grow as weeds here, they also grow in Ukraine – and the bees like them so the honey tastes like home.”

As 2024 approaches, the two year parole will be ending for many of the refugees and they will have to wait to see what the government does about adding an extension to their parole or if they work on something more permanent so that the Ukrainians are not living in limbo. 

Some of the refugees have no home to go back to and have become part of the Traverse City community. Mascari-Devitt says, “They’re employed, they’re taxpayers, they’re consumers and they are working and and giving back to their local community. And they’re building relationships here. So I’d like to see our government make those kind of decisions to keep them secured here.”

The refugee pantry is currently gearing up for school to start again with a School Backpack Night for the Ukrainian families and their kids on Tuesday, August 22nd. Mascari-Devitt expects it to be another big night for her clients to show up and get supplies for their children. Bethany Christian Services has been able to get donated backpacks that the kids can choose from and they will also be able to choose the school supplies that they need for the fall, no matter what age they are.

Donated items that are being asked for include pencils, colored pencils, erasers, glue sticks, crayons, highlighters, ballpoint pens, scissors, pocket folders, spiral notebooks, 3-ring binders, loose leaf paper, protractors, markers, lunchboxes, sticky notes, dictionaries, locker organizers, staplers, weekly planners and more. Fellowship Church will be collecting donated school supplies on Sunday, August 13th inside of the church from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.