Arkansas native becomes one-man shuttle operation for Ukrainian refugees
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Lewis Price with a woman and her two children at a McDonald's in Poland. A large labrador belonging to the family waited in the car. Photo courtesy of Lewis Price
Little Rock native Lewis Price spent 10 days in Poland last month acting as a chauffeur to Ukrainian refugees.
What happened: On a whim, Price flew to Warsaw, rented a Fiat station wagon and started shuttling people fleeing the war from the Polish border to safe havens.
- "I was watching the news and just got this feeling that I had to do more than just sit here and watch or maybe write a check to the Red Cross ... ," he told Axios.
Driving the news: More than 4.3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded in February, most of them into Poland; most of them women and children.
- A sudden glut of people, log-jammed logistics and threat of human traffickers means there's demand for safe passage, even if just a carload at a time.
The intrigue: Price considered hosting refugees in his home but that seemed too abstract and in the distant future. He wanted to take action now, he said. And because he sold his business a few years ago, he had time to spare.
- He speaks English and German but no Polish or Ukrainian. To communicate, he and passengers relied on Google Translate, facial expressions and Mr. Squirrel, a finger puppet.
- Either by fatherly instinct or fluke, Price, who has one child, said the puppet ended up in his bag as he packed. It proved to be an ice-breaker with children who, even running from a war, get cranky and bored.
Details: When Price boarded his plane on March 10, he had a phone number for an agency that was supposed to help connect him with refugees needing rides. When he arrived, the number didn't work.
- Then a woman at the car rental agency told him about a place in Nadarzyn, just south of Warsaw, where thousands of refugees were being staged temporarily. He went there to see what he could do.
- "[The people running the refugee camp] copied my passport and checked out to make sure that I was who I said I was and within 30 minutes of having arrived there, I had a group of five adults," Price told us.
Yes, and: He did this for the next several days, moving families and dogs to places where they'd be safe. Price traveled all over Poland and even to Oberkotza, Germany, staying in hotels or as a guest with host families sheltering the refugees.
- He put 5,000 miles on the Fiat in 10 days, transporting 28 people.
Context: Price currently lives in Phoenix, but is often in Fayetteville, where he lived for many years, visiting family and friends.
- He paid for the trip himself and used frequent-flier miles he's accumulated through business trips.
The bottom line: "I think what happens is people look at something as large as a war and they say, 'How can I possibly affect that?' Right? You can't," Price said. "But you can affect one person by letting them share your Clif Bar."
- "It's that small. I think we talk ourselves out of a lot of stuff because it seems like it's undoable, and it’s not."
