Donate To Paragliders Helping Ukraine

This is an English translation sharing the story of a group of Polish and Ukrainian paragliding pilots coming together to make an impact on the ground floor. Based on actual calls for help from their Ukrainian paragliding friends (met over 20 years of flying together) they bought an out of service Ambulance, filled it with medical supplies, radios, and other requested equipment, drove it to the border, and handed it over to friends in need.

Maybe you’re interested in contributing to efforts organized by fellow pilots, your timely help would be greatly appreciated. They have another crowdfunding campaign for more Ambulances (3 have been purchased so far), plan on making more supply runs, bring back refugees from the border and keep helping however most effective. They’re well known instructors, test pilots, overall great and trustworthy people, acting fast and making a direct impact during a rapidly evolving situation. I’ve personally chatted with the organizers (while they were driving the ambulances across the country) and heard several incredible heartwarming stories of passion, flying and standing up for what you believe in during a time of war. Please also don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions.

How to Donate

English link to crowdfunding site accepting Visa or Google Pay

https://zrzutka.pl/en/nw3xf4

Latest Updates

Organizers

Zbyszek Gotkiewicz (Gostek)

Wojciech Marchelak

Andrieja Rawczuk

  • Started flying in Ukraine, originally from Kyiv
  • Relocated to Poland several years ago with wife and kids

News Coverage

Watch a video of the ambulance driving across the border on Polish National TV (we’ve translated and added English subtitles).

Source: Polish National Television Channel

Flying in Ukraine

Ukraine has several types of flying sites, beautiful soar-able riverside cliffs, the Karpaty mountains and also grassy mountain hillsides that you can fly for kilometers with forests that start below them; a very unique place.

I realize how important flying is in Ukraine as Gostek tells me a story of one of his friends. “When we first met he had a huge dilemma he was discussing with me (and keep in mind this is a not rich country). He was flying an old glider and really needed a new wing, so he was deciding, should I buy a new wing? Or a car, which also seems pretty important… he ended up buying the wing.” Gostek has been going there for 20 years and always looks forward to it.

We would see each other at competitions every year, I kept returning there because of the incredible atmosphere they create. Flying isn’t commercialized, they’re flying out of passion, because it brings them together, they heartwarmingly welcome everyone, even after 2014 they were accepting pilots from Russia and in no way were there any negative feelings [shortly after the Russian annexation of Crimea]. They behaved incredibly heartwarmingly. I want to keep traveling there because there is so much love.

Gostek

When you cross the border into Ukraine, they greet you with their heart in their palm.

Gostek

Why We Got Involved

My name is Kuba Mazur, I currently live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Flying has changed my life and the best part is the community, all my best friends are pilots, including my wife Jessica 🙂 I was born in Lublin, Poland which is about 1.5 hour drive to the Ukrainian border, my family still lives there. Although my parents and I fled the country when I was 3 years old, at the time Poland was occupied by communist Russia. I’ve returned to visit many times and kept in touch with family and friends there. This is a beautiful part of the world filled with heartwarmingly welcoming people who are in fact now accepting 100’s of thousands refugees from Ukraine. Our hearts are with them and we want to do anything we can to help.

Feel free to reach out directly with any questions using the Contact Us page.