Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

OGDEN — Less than a week back from Eastern Europe, where he helped Ukrainians contending with the Russia invasion, Jack Knowlden is already planning a return.

“It’s because things are getting more urgent. Like my phone is going nonstop,” he said, alluding to messages from acquaintances and friends in Ukraine asking for help.

He’s put his Royal Enfield motorcycle up for sale for $7,500 to raise funds to cover his travel costs and assist those in the country. He’s hoping to go yet this week, tapping only his own funds.

“If you’re in a good position to help others, then why wouldn’t you?” he said, speaking from one of the two Skin It Tattoo shops in Ogden that he operates. “Who’s helping them?”

There are the considerations of his loved ones here in Utah, notably his two young children and his girlfriend, Kindra Foster. During his first stint in Eastern Europe from March 15-31, a stay that included a trip to Lviv in western Ukraine and time on the Ukraine-Poland border, Foster recalls some tense moments.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

“It’s definitely hard because you don’t want want to hold somebody back from helping people,” Foster said. She remembers one time “hysterically crying” during Knowlden’s time there last month when he traveled across the border from Poland into Ukraine to deliver assistance. She’d track him via his cellphone during his forays to make sure he didn’t run into trouble.

Knowlden, though, won’t be going to the hot spots. And he sees the trip almost as a mission. He’s rounding up bulletproof vests here in Utah that he hopes to bring, presuming the airline he travels on allows it.

“I’m getting hold of some people who need them. Protective gear, that’s what they’re wanting now,” he said.

When he traveled to the area the first time last month, drawn by images of Ukrainian refugees, he started by offering food and clothes in Poland to Ukrainian women and children fleeing the fighting in their nation. He generated around $10,000 in donations, maybe more, and also tapped his own funds, documenting his efforts on his Facebook page.

The recipients were appreciative of the aid and consideration. “You could see how happy they were,” he said.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

But Knowlden also saw the robust effort in the Polish border city of Medyka, where he traveled, to aid the Ukrainian refugees. “Once they got to Poland, they were pretty much taken care of,” he said.

Thus, he turned his efforts to aiding those in Ukraine, those fighting and those contending with the fighting. The main concern of the refugees he met in Poland “was their husbands, their sons, their boyfriends who were still there fighting,” Knowlden said.

He made connections in Poland, acquired bulletproof vests — “the No. 1 thing everyone is asking for” — and brought them to Lviv, handing them off to Ukrainians who would deliver them to their final destinations.

Other needs inside Ukraine, Knowlden said, are medical supplies, canned food and gear like knee pads. He’ll make connections when he gets to the area to purchase supplies, complementing whatever he can bring. He’s not trafficking in arms, however, and doesn’t plan to fight, though he’s seen Americans and other foreigners who have joined Ukraine’s military forces in the battle against Russia.

“I’m not pro-war,” Knowlden said, adding that he generally steers clear of political things. “But I don’t see how the rest of the world can stand by and watch.”

Indeed, he wants to help while it’s most needed. “Get in there, do what I can, then get back,” he said.

Newsletter