FRYEBURG — The art and care packages put together by Molly Ockett School third graders in Brian Cushings’ classroom for Ukrainian families were delivered to the Poland refuge camp by Mary Brigid Curtis of Casco and her sister, Sheila Donahue of Norway.

The sisters volunteered to work at the World Central Kitchen at the Poland-Ukraine border. Sheila sent the following e-mail to Cushing this past Sunday: 

We are well. Our lives are consumed by this little self-contained refugee city (the actual mall I am referring to, not to the city in Poland where it is located). Our daily pattern is the same and I never know what day of the week it is, it doesn’t matter here. I never see the news, and that doesn’t matter here. We work overnight, then try to do one sight-seeing adventure, then sleep and then repeat the same thing over again.

There are many amazing Ukrainian pet owners. One woman evacuated with one dog and six cats. She made it here. The animals were all healthy and she went off to her new country. A single woman with her husky arrived here and didn’t know which country she was going to relocate to. That is typical of all of the refugees here. She decided to go on to Norway, so that her dog could be in its native environment. She doesn’t speak the language nor does she know anyone in Norway! 

We do not hear any shelling. The number of refugees daily is 500 to 1,200 people, which is down from two weeks ago. I just heard from a new Italian friend that we have just received some refugees from Mariupol. 

Mary Brigid and I drove to the border, an eight-minute drive. There is a small town right there called Medyka. The Polish side of the border is just one huge parking lot now. There is a 4-5 km lineup of vehicles to drive across the border. Many are trucks towing used cars to sell to Ukrainians. There are no taxis right now in Ukraine and the people need cars to replace all the cars that have been destroyed.