While war wages in Ukraine, here at home, Timothy Pryko is waging peace.
Pryko and his brother-in-law, Daniel Bond, own four assisted-living care homes in Santa Barbara County, under the banner of Abundant Care.
They are from Ukraine, and the unrest has devastated them.
“Our hearts are broken right now for Ukrainian people,” Pryko said. “We’re blessed that we can support them in so many ways, as a family, as the company.”
Pryko is working on the ground with people in Ukraine to support individuals with clothes, shelter and food.
“It is our desire to save as many as we can,” Pryko said.
He has run the Abundant Care homes for 22 years and has a soft spot in his heart for helping people.
“What we are finding is that a lot of seniors are left behind,” Pryko said. “Whether it’s basements without electricity or without food, without warm blankets or water, if we hear, we dispatch our friends and pay for their trips, and they go rescue them and bring them to safety to the refugee camps that are more on the western part of Ukraine.”
Young, healthy people are able to run for safety, but people with disabilities are left behind, he said.
They work with churches, nonprofit organizations and individuals who are “willing to risk their lives” to rescue them.
“There’s a huge wave of orphans now as well because their parents either got shot or were displaced, by the way,” Pryko said. “The kids were left behind. They are either on the streets or in basements. We are praying for them and their safety.”
Sometimes the gestures are small, but significant.
On Tuesday, Pryko’s friends and family members invited children to the Santa Barbara assisted-living facility to create cards to send to Ukranian children, orphans and senior citizens.
Pryko set up long tables in the walkway of the home, 4589 Auhay Drive, while kids cut paper, drew pictures and colored pages to create cards.
“This country has blessed us in so many ways, and we are honored to be here, to be citizens right now and support those who need help,” he said.
He worked as a nurse in Ukraine and came to the United State in 1996.
“Coming here, I had a passion for seniors since day one,” Pryko said.
His grandmother was paralyzed from a stroke in Ukraine and he took care of her as a teenager.
“It just grew my love for seniors,” Pryko said.
In 1999, he started a boutique approach to assisted-living homes on the South Coast.
Pryko said the Ukrainian people have been victims of the war and it could have been prevented.
“Thousands of innocent people could have been saved,” he said.
To donate, visit Good Call Ministries or send a check to “The Good Call Ministries” at Good Call Ministries, P.O. Box 4694, Mission Viejo, CA 92690.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
