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Local church raises over $130,000 for Ukrainians

St. Gabriel's is continuing to raise money to send to Poland and Ukraine.

ELMA, N.Y. — Last month, we shared a story with you about a church in Elma raising money to send to Ukrainians.

Monday, we got an update and Saint Gabriel's has raised more than $130,000.

"We call them the angels of Saint Gabriel's in Elma," says Rev. Walter Grabowski.

St. Gabriel's in Elma started collecting money to send to Ukrainian refugees as the war started. Father Walter Grabowski still has family on the Polish-Ukrainian border and is sending the money directly to the people who are helping the refugees.

"My niece who was working in Przemyśl, she involved many people, too, with like forty people from her parish making everyday sandwiches that were, you know, delivered to the crossing the border with people coming sometimes traveling two, three days, hungry," says Rev. Walter Grabowski.

The parish collected donations at its Dyngus Day celebration and as long as the donations keep coming in, Father Walter will keep sending them overseas.

"It was a tremendous help, you know, considering that I was thinking about maybe five, $10,000, and this grew so big," says Rev. Walter Grabowski. 

He says he's even gotten donations from as far away as Hawaii as families in his parish shared posts about the fundraiser on social media.

"They knew that money goes directly to the people who are in need," says Rev. Walter Grabowski. 

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