Our Speaker on June 7^th

 

Jeff Kaminsky, is a Northbrook resident, businessman, and trained as a volunteer first responder with the Community Emergency Response Team [CERT]. 

 

“The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program offers members of the public an opportunity to learn basic hands-on disaster response techniques and life-saving skills to utilize in their own homes and neighborhoods.”

 

In March of 2022 at the beginning of the Russian War against Ukraine, Jeff organized a humanitarian mission and flew to Berlin to aid and rescue Ukrainian refugees who were fleeing the war. After initially assisting with the care and resettlement of 200 Jewish orphans rescued from Odessa, he began volunteering at the Berlin Central Bus Station where nearly 40 buses of refugees were arriving daily from Ukraine. Most of the refugees were women and children who fled for days or weeks to escape Russian bombings and terror.  Many people had no place to go and hadn’t slept in a bed or bathed for nearly a week.

 

Having seen their exhausted faces and learning that many people had no place to sleep, he began renting hotel rooms for the most vulnerable refugees, including women, children, the elderly, and people suffering from cancer or who needed other medical assistance. 

 

Kaminsky began using social media to share with friends and family about the dire situation for the refugees on the ground in Berlin.  People were moved by his posts and began donating money to help.  

 

To date, the raised funds have enabled him to provide hotel rooms with clean beds, hot showers, and fresh breakfasts, to more than 1,000 refugees. 

 

As the situation inside Ukraine continued to deteriorate, Jeff began working with other volunteers and organizations to provide a range of aid including bringing food and medicine to people inside Ukraine; organizing medical extractions from within Ukraine; bringing busloads of refugees out of Ukraine, and working to find semi-permanent housing in Germany, France, Italy, and Poland. 

 

With a unique ability to build relationships and bring people together through networking, along with “entrepreneurial spirit” it is Jeff’s belief that working together “we will either find a way or make one!”

 

This resulted in his current endeavor to create an organization called “Project Aid & Rescue” that will give his grassroots team of volunteers the ability to collect donations.*

 

Located in the United States as well as in Europe, and whose purpose is to raise money to help refugees as well as the Ukrainian people still inside Ukraine. 

 

When not working Jeff enjoys being outdoors, biking, running, traveling with his family and watching his three kids play baseball and soccer. During the pandemic, the Kaminsky family took on a new hobby and built several raised gardens that produced over 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of fruits and vegetables in one season that resulting in receiving the Village of Northbrook’s Green Resident Award for Sustainability in 2021.

 

 

*Note that “Project Aid & Rescue”  is not a non-profit organization at this time.