HADLEY, Mass.- The Most Holy Redeemer Church is active in its support for people fleeing Ukraine and Father Piotr Pawlus is leading the effort.

He and a local business partner recently took a trip to help refugees.

“We planned that trip… weeks before, months before, but it was supposed to be a different trip,” Father Pawlus said. “It’s supposed to be more about business and having some time off, but then war broke, and we totally went 180 degrees and we changed the idea of what it is and it was turning into a mission of help.”

Father Pawlus visited his native Poland earlier this month, spending a week helping to provide support for Ukrainian refugees at the border between the two countries. He said the experience reminded him of the stories his grandparents would tell him about World War II and how he’d see photos of women and children holding each tightly as tanks rolled by.

“One would think that you will never have to watch those pictures again and here we are,” Father Pawlus said. “I was there at the border and I am seeing the same pictures of women and children going now colored pictures, I would say, of walking from Ukraine crossing the border holding their kids, holding their suitcase if they were lucky.”

Father Pawlus said the church and the Hadley community have already raised more than $17,000 in Ukrainian relief funds. He said it’s important to continue to spread awareness and show support because people in Ukraine are still fighting for their lives.

“It’s been a month when Ukraine is fighting and people are suffering and innocent are dying, kids, the adults and the regular people, the soldiers, so we cannot just go over it as just another news,” Father Pawlus said “This is not the news, this is the life of those people.”

Father Pawlus said people can show their support for Ukraine by sending thoughts and prayers as well as continued donations to churches and others supporting the families from Ukraine affected by the war, which he prays will end soon.