Doing Good Everywhere – Meet Alec
To know 501 Collective is to know the people who are a part of it. While many organizations and non-profits are about the organization itself or image or finances or whatever thing so easily creeps in to take away the focus… 501 Collective is simple, it’s about the people. The people we seek to serve and the people, like you, who are a part of doing good everywhere.
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Alec is a father of two, who works 24-hour shifts in health care. His job as a flight medic takes him all over the PNW and leaves him little time to himself or for rest. But something was burning inside Alec while he watched what was happening in the world.
Alec shares, “It was hard to see what was happening in the world every day and not be a part of it. I saw this (a chance to go to Ukraine) and it was something focused on doing good.”
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Alec received a phone call from his friend Marie, who said to him, “I did this thing out of the ordinary for me. I’m going on a trip to Romania and Ukraine.”
Alec’s response was, “I need to do this too. Can I go?”
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Alec had never traveled out of North America. And yet there he was, traveling to Romania by himself to meet up with a team of people he had mostly never met.
And upon landing, he hit the ground running.
It was, “Wake up early. Hi everybody. Nice to meet you. What are we doing today?”
“We immediately started boxing supplies to get ready to be shipped to Ukraine, and soon, we were going to Ukraine ourselves.”
“Going to Ukraine and handing out food was the biggest eye-opening moment for me… one of the biggest eye-opening moments in my life. These people were well dressed, but were clearly hungry and in this chaotic situation. It put my life in perspective. It made my problems in life seems insignificant. I wasn’t worried about bombs hitting me or my family.”
“I went back to the States and I told everyone that I was going to go back. I had a lot going on in life but it felt good to go back and hold to that promise. To a degree, what I do every day in life has an impact. But this feels like I have impacted more of the world by doing this than I have in total the last 10 years.”
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Alec stood outside the Fight For Freedom center when a Ukrainian orphan, around 2 years old looked over towards him and began smiling. He was with another little boy and their caretaker. He began getting fussy and pulling away from his caretaker. Eventually, she let him go. He walked straight over to Alec, gave him the biggest hug he could and calmly walked back to his caretaker to go inside. A little boy who just needed a hug and a man who may have even needed that hug a little more.
“Coming on these trips, I’ve met some of the most kind and compassionate people I’ve ever met in my life. This is something that would benefit a lot of people who are lost and looking for purpose. One of the coolest things about this experience is that there is so much division in the world but there are so many good people doing good things in the world and I’m thankful I got to be a part of it.”