Rogers City Native Boyd Byelich Returns from Ukraine Trip

Boyd Byelich, a native of Rogers City, has been visiting Ukraine and Poland for the last year and a half, delivering clothing, food, and hygiene supplies to Ukrainian refugees.

He has just returned from his ninth trip to Ukraine where he spent 13 days. He says this was his most intense trip, being in the middle of artillery and even seeing a drone shot down.

“All of a sudden, we heard something go ‘boom,’ turned around in time to see an explosion up in the sky and followed by a few more booms, and then search lights dancing across the sky,” said Byelich. “All of it in less than a minute, but basically it was the Ukrainian Air Defense System shooting down a Russian drone.”

Being this his ninth trip to Ukraine and fifth trip to Poland, Byelich’s relationship with the Ukrainian people has grown exponentially. He continues to network with them back in Rogers City to determine what they need for his next trip, and he puts it all together and delivers it upon that trip.

“When people find out that, ‘hey, you guys can help and you really will help, you will come here,’ then they’re also very responsive, very proactive in trying to help us better help them, so to speak,” said Byelich.

Having visited Ukraine so many times, people have asked him why he has continued to return. Byelich says he simply enjoys helping people and believes the impact can have significant reverberations.

“When you see firsthand how much benefit one person can do with a few things and help a few people, and how grateful they are, it almost to me becomes like an addiction,” said Byelich.

Byelich says none of this would be possible without the support of his community back in northeast Michigan.