Benefield: His initial plans thwarted, Sebastopol man goes to Plan B in Poland

Colton Edson didn’t know what he wanted to do, but he knew he wanted to do something.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine months earlier had stirred something in him.

“I had been following it,” Edson, 25, said. “I have been looking for a way to help and serve for a long time.”

So he linked up with Sheldon Rosenberg, a fellow Sebastopol resident who has made repeated trips to Poland to support Ukrainian refugees.

The focus of this trip would be in support of Global Autism Project.

Edson, who has a background in construction and works as a drafter for a Santa Rosa civil engineering firm, launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay the way.

Then plans fell apart.

There were changes with who Global Autism Project needed on the ground in Poland on this trip, but Edson already had his ticket. He had his plans. He had the will to go.

So he scrambled. He made calls. Family members sent emails to friends of friends. And he found a match.

Edson pitched his construction skills to a man working with Poland Welcomes, a nonprofit refugee organization that was housing hundreds of women and children at different locations on the border between Poland and Ukraine.

Edson shared his travel details and said he was on his way. He left July 27.

“I really didn’t know what I was getting into,” he said. “I just showed up and shot him a text.”

It was a near perfect fit.

Edson was immediately making modest but essential fixes on an aging building in the border town of Radymno. The former dormitory had long been vacant before being turned into bustling shelter.

“I was really trying to make this building more functional for them,” he said. “This organization was leasing this old dorm that had been sitting vacant for about 10 years, so obviously there was quite a lot of work to be done.”

He crafted an outdoor shade structure for the hundreds of kids staying there. He installed screens on windows — relatively simple fixes that made a huge day-to-day difference.

“We installed screens in all the windows in the mess hall so they didn’t have to cook and eat with all the flies in there,” he said.

When he replumbed and installed a sink that had been sitting on the floor for who knows how long, Edson knew he had scored a win. It was being used within minutes.

“It took me an hour,” he said. “They were cooking and rinsing” immediately.

He built and installed bunk beds.

“I was building dozens of bunk beds, cramming them into every nook and cranny you could think of,” he said. “It was a little uncomfortable. You’d go into a room with five bunk beds and you’d think ‘We can get one more bunk bed in here.’”

Since the Russians invaded Ukraine six months ago, more than 13 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

Poland has welcomed more refugees than any other nation.

And this week marked a bittersweet irony. Aug. 24 is a Ukrainian national holiday, a day meant to celebrate the country’s independence from Russia. It also marked the sixth month of fighting.

Edson said the city streets in the town of Radymno seemed normal during his 11-day stay. As normal as could be expected.

It was the nearby airport that had a distinct feeling of wartime.

“The commercial airport is turned into a military base,” he said. “There are missiles pointed across these huge fields … it felt very militarized.”

During his stay, which was filled with long hours, a bout of sickness, and some life-altering perspective, Edson said he questioned his own intentions in traveling half a world away to offer help.

“I had wondered, am I doing this for my ego, to feel good? Would my money be better spent just sending money?” he said.

But after years in construction, he come up with a pretty practical answer.

“I think if they’d hired a contractor to do what I did I think it would have cost more than it cost me to fly there,” he said.

Plus, there is this: Edson is now on a different kind of quest. He saw the good works being done by Poland Welcomes and he wants to rally support here for their efforts.

He’s left Radymno, but being home, speaking about his experience, he believes he can still be of help.

“I’m hoping that through the stories that I gained there I can raise more money to send there,” he said.

Edson can show people pictures, he can paint a story of what life is like for displaced people.

“It’s different if you can assign a face to a cause,” he said.

His trip looked nothing like the one he had originally planned. But it was all for the good, he said.

“I think everything happened in the way that it was meant to,” he said.

“They were so thankful,” he said. “It was so worth it.”

So Edson will continue to tell his story. He also hopes to return.

“I’d like to find a way,” he said. “No one there thinks this thing is going to end any time soon.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.