Delivering Health Care and Hope to Ukraine

00;00;00;15 - 00;00;28;20
Rick Pollack
Hi, I'm Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association. Welcome to a special edition of Advancing Health. For more than a year, we've seen heartbreaking images as the war rages on in Ukraine. These include newborn babies being moved from the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital to a makeshift bomb shelter in a basement and the destruction of health care facilities.

00;00;29;18 - 00;00;57;27
Rick Pollack
Still, many Ukrainian health care workers continue to provide much needed care to fellow citizens. However, their ability to provide this care has been severely limited by the tremendous damage the war has inflicted on Ukraine's health care infrastructure. We're pleased to share with you an interview of how Chris Manson, vice president for government relations at OSF Health care in Illinois, is making a difference.

00;00;58;24 - 00;01;32;22
Rick Pollack
You'll hear during this conversation with AHA's Alex Rosenbaum, who is a key member of our team and is also a native of Odessa, Ukraine, how a question from Chris's daughter led him to spearhead a tremendous humanitarian effort to deliver much needed ambulances and medical supplies to Ukraine. We wanted to share Chris's story with you and provide an opportunity to help the Ukrainian people as they continue to care for the sick and injured and provide healing and hope in their struggle to protect freedom and democracy.

00;01;33;03 - 00;01;51;12
Rick Pollack
Thanks so much. And thanks to Alex and Chris.

00;01;51;12 - 00;02;14;26
Alex Rozenbaum
Welcome to a very special AHA podcast which will focus on an incredibly humanitarian effort to water in Ukraine. I'm Alex Rozenbaum, senior director of Product Development, Product Strategy and Partnerships at the AHA. This podcast is especially near and dear to my heart. I was born and raised in Odessa, Ukraine, a city known to many around the world as a pearl of the Black Sea.

00;02;15;07 - 00;02;42;21
Alex Rozenbaum
As the war in Ukraine has raged on for this past year, Odessa has been bombarded numerous times. Numerous civilians, casualties, infrastructure damage. I could have never imagined that in the 21st century, after the atrocities that we witnessed of World War Two, that we could ever see a war like this on any soil. And so this tragic war has brought out the worst and the very best in some people.

00;02;43;03 - 00;02;58;20
Alex Rozenbaum
Today, it is with great pleasure that I welcome one of those special individuals, the very best from OSF health care, Chris Manson, the vice president of government relations. Chris, welcome to this podcast. It's great to have you here.

00;02;58;29 - 00;03;05;17
Chris Manson
Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here and happy to get to talk to you a little bit about what we're doing today. So thank you very much.

00;03;06;03 - 00;03;16;15
Alex Rozenbaum
It's absolutely our pleasure. And welcome. So let's kind of get started. Let's maybe begin today's discussion just by learning a little bit about your organization and who you are and what you do there.

00;03;17;03 - 00;03;44;03
Chris Manson
Yes. So I'm the vice president of government relations for OSF Health Care. So and I've been in health care for almost 17, 18 years. So, you know, technically, I've been been a part of AHA for 17, 18 years. Right. Go to the the annual meetings in DC and the legislative stuff. So that's my role. Also, OSF health care is a 15 hospital health system, Catholic health system, out of based out of Peoria.

00;03;44;03 - 00;03;51;03
Chris Manson
We have hospitals in Illinois and Michigan and I've had the pleasure of being the VP government relations for the past six years.

00;03;51;16 - 00;04;12;09
Alex Rozenbaum
And thank you very much for all, you know, everything that you do in the field and for coming to our events and being part of AHA. So we're, you know, very appreciative of that. And I think what everyone is going to want to hear today is, you know, really how did you get, you know, started here with this incredible drive for the ambulances to Ukraine?

00;04;12;09 - 00;04;13;25
Alex Rozenbaum
Like what got you started, Chris?

00;04;14;17 - 00;04;35;27
Chris Manson
So, you know, back in unfortunate events at the end of February 24th, when the full scale invasion kicked off with Russia invading Ukraine, probably like many people, I would watch the news with in this case, my daughter. And as we watch the news, I try and turn the channel before you know, anything too bad would get on and everything.

00;04;36;10 - 00;04;53;21
Chris Manson
But even as a seven year old, she was, you know, she's sharp enough to pick up there really bad things happening in this country. She saw the, you know, the children being separated from their parents. She saw buildings bombed. I mean, you know, just the completely unjustified violence that was that was happening and we were seeing it on TV.

00;04;54;00 - 00;05;18;18
Chris Manson
And so at some point in late February, early March, it obviously got to her because as we sit down for dinner to say, you know, we say blessing before we eat, she'd say, can we pray for the people of Ukraine? And so we knew right then, like, okay, this is this is impacting or bothering her. So it kind of kept an eye on her and we'd talk a little bit and I could tell she was a little bothered and one point and very early March we were talking and she said, Hey, Dad.

00;05;19;04 - 00;05;36;08
Chris Manson
And I said, Yeah, you know what's going on? She's like, She indicates she was still pretty upset about what was happening. And she just said, you know, we were praying for them. And she's like, Yeah, she's observed. Do you think there's something we could do to help the people in Ukraine? And so, I mean, that kind of hit me and I kind of went away thinking about that.

00;05;36;13 - 00;05;54;24
Chris Manson
And and actually, believe it or not, I was going to an H a government relations meeting. It would be March 7th of 2022. And as I was on the plane, I was thinking about that and I'm like, well, I work in health care. I used to be in the military, used to be a volunteer firefighter. So just trying to connect some dots and figure out what could be done.

00;05;55;10 - 00;06;12;03
Chris Manson
And after seeing some images of ambulances being destroyed somewhere between Chicago and Washington, DC on an airplane, kind of landed on the idea like, hey, I wonder if I got an ambulance, and if I could get my health system to put some supplies in it, I wonder if the Ukrainian government would would want that.

00;06;12;12 - 00;06;21;08
Chris Manson
And so it kind of landed on that, that idea on a plane somewhere between Chicago and in Washington, DC on March 7th. And that's kind of how it started.

00;06;21;23 - 00;06;48;23
Alex Rozenbaum
That's an incredible story, Chris. That's a I mean, that's truly an incredible thing of how compassionate your daughter is and how, you know, heartfelt must have been for you, but also the receptivity and awareness of what's going on in the world. You know, one other thing that I think I've mentioned to you, but I think around Ukraine and a lot of Ukrainians, you're known as the ambulance guy.

00;06;48;23 - 00;07;08;15
Alex Rozenbaum
I'm not sure if you know this, but this is actually how I learned, you know, of you from the Ukrainian council in Chicago, Yevgeny Drogba, you know, he goes, he's, you know, the ambulance guy. And I was like, no, Yevgeny. I'm not sure I do, but if you do let me know who this is. And so I'm you know, I'm so grateful that he put us in touch.

00;07;08;16 - 00;07;33;27
Alex Rozenbaum
And, you know, it's amazing. And one of the things that as you you know, as you and I talked over the last several months, I realize how complex this process is or and, you know, has been and it is, you know, still for you. Can you share a little bit about what are the different steps, you know, how do you actually obtain an ambulance, get it ready, get it prepped?

00;07;34;06 - 00;07;46;05
Alex Rozenbaum
Because a lot of our listeners, you know, a lot of our age members and I'm sure they'll you know, they'll want to reach out to you and get involved with this and we'll talk about this at the end of the of the podcast, you know, but just share how complex this has been.

00;07;46;27 - 00;08;15;22
Chris Manson
Well, I will tell you right now, so right now, today's what, the 9th? So about a year since that first idea. We now have 28 ambulances in Ukraine and we have one fire engine in Ukraine right now. And really what it starts with is with the generosity of people, and the generosity of people in the United States. I got to tell you, I made a phone call to an ambulance provider in Illinois ... well, I made two phone calls.

00;08;15;22 - 00;08;31;28
Chris Manson
One, I called my employer and said, hey, I feel I feel like I got to do something. And if I, you know, explain what I wanted to do. And I'm like, if I can get this done, would OSF help? They said, Absolutely, You're filling a calling. You know, we want to help. Let's make this happen and we'll fill it up with supplies.

00;08;31;28 - 00;08;48;20
Chris Manson
So that was one. The second question was to the to the ambulance provider. And I called him and I explained what I wanted to do. And his only question to me was, well, what do you want, gas or diesel? He didn't ask me to explain myself. He didn't ask me to defend it. He didn't ask me, What do you want?

00;08;48;20 - 00;09;05;19
Chris Manson
Gas a diesel. So and I hit on that whenever I talk to anyone, because there's just so much negative stuff that you hear about day to day. And, you know, it could be anywhere in the world, but it's just there's a lot of bad stuff, but there's a lot of good stuff. None of this would be possible unless there were so many people that were so generous.

00;09;05;19 - 00;09;25;03
Chris Manson
So just I want a level set that this wouldn't happen without the kindness and generosity of a lot of people. So once you know, what we do is we get in. What we've done is we put a call out pretty much as wide as we can to fire departments, hospitals, health systems, private ambulance providers, and now we're shipping in fire engines as well.

00;09;25;03 - 00;09;49;18
Chris Manson
So again, the fire departments. And basically the the ask is or the call to people would be, hey, do you have an old, older or old ambulance or fire engine that you're looking to retire? You know, in your normal course of business, it's on its way out. Have you gotten some new ones then? And, you know, this is now the backup to the backup and you're just really you're really paying to store it more than anything because you really don't use it that often.

00;09;50;03 - 00;10;10;20
Chris Manson
And the the beauty of it is the way most ambulance businesses and fire departments and hospitals run their ambulances, they take really good care of them. I mean, even the older ones. Do you do daily inspections? Weekly inspections? So you might have an ambulance -it's older, but it's maintained. Same thing with the fire engines. So we've identified a vehicle or we put the call out.
 
00;10;10;20 - 00;10;44;07
Chris Manson
And so once we have the vehicle, I'm very lucky to be able to work with, for example, the Ukrainian consulate in Chicago, the Ukrainian government itself out of Kiev, and then many amazing Ukrainian Americans here in the United States. I've partnered up with a couple of different organizations, the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America out of Chicago, and the U.S. Resistance Foundation, which is who I'm working with to ship my ambulances now. A nd when we identify a vehicle, we can get it picked up anywhere in the country where they get brought to Chicago or we now have a place in Virginia.

00;10;44;07 - 00;11;04;15
Chris Manson
We have a we have a second facility in Virginia so we can restage it there. And then while we're collecting the vehicles, people are almost simultaneously people hear about the ambulances being collected or they or someone that donates knows a friend and they talk to people. And and then so all of a sudden, I will get calls. Do you need a gurney?

00;11;04;15 - 00;11;24;00
Chris Manson
Do you need other supplies? Do you need a cardiac monitor? And the answer is yes. And what we try to do is we try to send every ambulance completely out as outfitted as we possibly can. We don't send drugs, but basically it's ready to go on a call if if we're going to go on a call. So it's got the gurney, hopefully its always got a cardiac monitor, got an AED. 

00;11;25;01 - 00;11;32;13
Chris Manson
It's got everything in it. And then in addition to that, then we'll overstuff it. So then we just basically use the ambulance as a container.

00;11;32;24 - 00;11;37;23
Alex Rozenbaum
And I've seen those pictures. No, I mean they were full to the top, you know, to the CEO.

00;11;37;23 - 00;11;59;05
Chris Manson
And you know, sometimes you'll get, you know, a bunch of sutures or you'll get just tons and tons of trauma dressings. I mean, one of the things that hit me probably the hardest when we did this ... OSF donated one of the things that was asked for by the Ministry of Health in Kiev in the beginning was pediatric ambu bags.

00;11;59;05 - 00;12;19;02
Chris Manson
And, you know, probably a lot of people are watching this. They'll know what that is. And it's that bag that you squeeze to help someone breathe. Well, you do it because you don't have the ventilator or you're doing manual basically respirations for helping someone breathe. Well, I open up one of those just to kind of see what, you know, a pediatric Amu bag would look like.

00;12;19;02 - 00;12;36;11
Chris Manson
How big was. And the mask was so small. And to think that one of the needs for the Ministry of Health for this country in a war was we need the means to be able to breathe for infant children because we're not going to have power. We're not going have generators, we're not going to have the ability.

00;12;37;18 - 00;12;57;19
Chris Manson
And when you see that mask, you realize how small that face is. It just it just hits you in the gut and it makes you want to you know, it makes you want to keep doing more. And so we try to find things like that to overstuff these ambulances. And then what we'll do is will get them from the United States wherever they're at to our staging locations, will get them to a port. First five we flew on an airplane.

00;12;57;19 - 00;13;16;29
Chris Manson
But now we put them on a ship and we get them to our port on the East Coast. Then they go by ship to to Germany, and then from there they're trucked to a staging location in Poland. And then on many of the occasions I've taken teams of Americans over, we partner up with some Ukrainians.

00;13;16;29 - 00;13;43;16
Chris Manson
We get a Polish military or police escort to the border, and then we drive the caravan to the convoy vehicles with ambulances and fire engines, depending on what it is across the border. And then we go across Ukraine delivering ambulances to military units that we've identified, or hospitals or other other entities that might need them that we've identified through either the Ministry of Health or other entities within the Ukrainian government.

00;13;43;16 - 00;13;45;10
Chris Manson
So that's that's basically how it's done.

00;13;46;06 - 00;14;17;15
Alex Rozenbaum
Amazing. And I also want to touch on, you know, through our conversations, you also mentioned that there is a logistics company here, a Ukrainian logistics company that has been very instrumental in providing the logistics and, you know, moving things around so that, you know, just wanted to make sure that we kind of address that. The other thing is, can you mention any of the other if you can, of course, mention any of the other hospitals or any members that have, you know, participated that have given their permission to say what they've done.

00;14;17;15 - 00;14;23;25
Alex Rozenbaum
Because I know that, you know, some of them may want to remain anonymous, which is which is also, you know, very noble. So.

00;14;24;15 - 00;14;53;23
Chris Manson
Yeah. So first of all, you're right. This wouldn't be possible without the logistical backbone or the support from normal logistics. But they've basically formed a nonprofit, which is this UK Resistance Foundation, or it's a UK. There is a bigger UK hyphen resistance dot org. And, so like I'm not a nonprofit, I'm just Chris. They came up with the catchy title, you know, I'm on Twitter at us ambulances you use ambulances for Ukraine.

00;14;53;27 - 00;15;13;13
Chris Manson
What I am is a catchy title and everything. The nonprofit is this UK hyphen resistance dot org. And so if anyone donates then they're donating to a 501c3 So if there's any of that, it's your private entity. If you're not, if you know, if you're a nonprofit, you know, worried about your tax exempt status or, you know about your tax or about deductions.

00;15;13;24 - 00;15;30;23
Chris Manson
But if you're, you know, if it's a private ambulance provider or something, they can donate to a501c3 and they'll get a letter with a tax ID number. And if there's any value that they have depreciated, they will take that value for the deductions. So it keeps everything, you know, like really super legitimate and it keeps me out of anything.

00;15;30;23 - 00;16;00;18
Chris Manson
And it just it's a very clean process that way. And again, without them, we wouldn't be able to move this stuff.  In Rotary, for example, International was good and they helped us. Our last shipment of 11 vehicles uses Stansted all the logistical, you know setting up and then Rotary then could donate and again it's just very clean.  And then you mentioned donors I mean so yes the first ambulance are a private I'll tell you this is a great story about and I it just it's a good story about the the people that we work with.

00;16;01;00 - 00;16;19;19
Chris Manson
So the first I told you the first story of the first ambulance was a private company. They said, what do you want, diesel or gas. Right. That's what that's what got it started. But the momentum came after we got that first ambulance on a 747, I started getting calls from the Ukrainian government. I started getting calls from other NGOs.

00;16;20;05 - 00;16;43;16
Chris Manson
Chris Do you have any more ambulances? This was April. This is March 29th. Hey, we have another plane on April 11th. We need it by like April 7th. Can you give me another ambulance? I will tell you, I reached out to a friend at another health system that they have asked to be anonymous, they are AHA members. And I told them this is what I need and this is no small organization.

00;16;43;16 - 00;17;09;29
Chris Manson
And they said, you know, we're really bureaucratic, we're kind of big. It might take us a little while. Those guys, everyone there moved heaven and earth and they got that. I asked, I think, on a Thursday for this ambulance. I told them I needed a highlight Thursday of the next week and sure enough, by Wednesday of the next week we had that ambulance on a trailer and it was really because of their generosity and they're willing to jump in that it became more of a thing that we could like keep doing it right.

00;17;09;29 - 00;17;32;03
Chris Manson
And so in addition, instead of having just one ambulance and being a kind of a fluke, we had one plane, we had an ambulance here, the second plane, we had a second ambulance. And people are like, Hey, this this might have some synergy, but, you know, they did it. Genesis has donated. Again OSF donated supplies. Promedica donated an amazing ambulance out of Toledo, Ohio.

00;17;32;03 - 00;17;55;23
Chris Manson
I mean, just a lot of good people and there's a lot of other health systems. And even our partners, the Virginia Hospital Association, those guys, they brought other groups together. And when we had an ambulance donated from a an ambulance authority in Richmond, our partners there in Virginia brought other health systems together and they filled that ambulance just full of supplies.

00;17;56;10 - 00;17;59;08
Chris Manson
So, I mean, it's just been that kind of that kind of a reaction.

00;17;59;25 - 00;18;21;28
Alex Rozenbaum
It's overwhelmingly what we're hearing is that anytime that somebody is, you know, outreach to you, they have been, you know, filled with their compassion, with their generosity. And they have, you know, you know, try to move heaven and earth, like you said, you know, to get this done. And, you know, just maybe shifting gears a little bit, you know, just want to touch maybe briefly, you've been to Ukraine multiple times already.

00;18;22;12 - 00;18;38;04
Alex Rozenbaum
Share with the listeners like, what has been the reaction from the Ukrainian citizens, you know, health care workers and and government officials that you've already come across with? And if you want to, you know our name, drop a few big names. Feel free to do so.

00;18;38;04 - 00;19;03;06
Chris Manson
Chris But I know I'll just say this. I've been to Ukraine four times now since April. The people have been way too generous and gracious to me. They know what they're dealing with. It's  it's existential. It's life or death. I mean, that and I've talked to people there.

00;19;03;06 - 00;19;23;28
Chris Manson
And for anyone that's listening, I mean, for the if you were to ask someone in Ukraine, what are you fighting for? And it's very simple. We just want to be free. I mean, and I'll tell you, when I first went there the first time, by the biggest impact I had, I met somebody that had lived when the Soviet Union was still in existence, and they just said, Hey, look, we've lived through that.

00;19;23;28 - 00;19;45;00
Chris Manson
We don't want to go back to that. We know what freedom is and we want to be free. And, you know, when you see that, you can't help but react to that. And so people have been just amazing to me. They've been very appreciative of the effort of many of the ambulances we sent over, have writing or messages of hope or other messages of goodwill.

00;19;45;22 - 00;20;02;28
Chris Manson
And I've seen men, women and children in Ukraine get tears in their eyes when they read some of these messages that you actually see them. We'll bring the ambulance in and you'll see them put their hands up in the air like touch the ambulance and they'll touch the words. And it's like it's a connection to the outside world.

00;20;02;28 - 00;20;13;25
Chris Manson
It's hope. It's we're not alone. And it can be sometimes it's just incredibly moving. The situations that just develop. I mean, it really is amazing.

00;20;14;12 - 00;20;34;10
Alex Rozenbaum
I think this is the, you know, the first time in the Ukrainian history that the you know, that they felt this this this overwhelming support, you know, especially from from all over the U.S. But I think this is also the first time that both of our nations have, you know, come in contact and so close and, you know, united.

00;20;34;10 - 00;20;54;19
Alex Rozenbaum
And again, like you said, we want to be free, you know, freedom and liberty, right? Pursuit of happiness. Right? I mean, we could probably take our Constitution and, you know, lend them some of our, you know, beliefs. This is, you know, very moving. And as you're talking about this, you know, it's hard not to be moved by this, but what else can we do, Chris?

00;20;54;21 - 00;21;06;06
Alex Rozenbaum
What can the AHA members any of the listeners of this podcast, any anyone in the health care provider space, tell us what you know, what else we can do.

00;21;07;03 - 00;21;36;08
Chris Manson
The first thing for me, what I would say is if your health system or a hospital and you run ambulances, go take a look in your garage and see if you've got any used, you know, ambulances, they don't need to be super pretty, but they need to be functional. And if you can kick the tires and they're a good ambulance and you think you can, you know, I could you think it's okay if I drive it from Poland down to Odessa or Nikolaev, which is probably what could happen, you know, So please keep that in mind.

00;21;36;27 - 00;21;58;03
Chris Manson
I'll take it and so that's one. And I cannot tell you like I've got a we've got 29 or we got 28 ambulances over there. Right now we have the one fire engine. We're doing another convoy at the end of this month. We're going to ship out another nine ambulances and another five fire engines. But the people I'm talking to are asking me for 140 ambulances.

00;21;58;19 - 00;22;22;09
Chris Manson
You've got hospitals, you've got hospitals, you've got military units, you've got other NGOs. All these people are trying to move wounded people. And, you know, your vehicle might not be in a military unit, but it could still be on the front line, moving wounded, I mean, moving any kind of wounded. So if you've got a vehicle, let me know if you've got supplies, trauma related supplies.

00;22;22;09 - 00;22;50;09
Chris Manson
We don't, you know, nothing COVID related. We don't need masks, we don't need stuff like that. But if you've got trauma related supplies, again, those are very important things. And then if you just I guess the other thing is if you're interested in if you like, the idea, like the concept and you want to help, but you know, you're not you're good on your supplies enemy vehicles that UA Resistance.org , they're the ones that are helping me move these vehicles over there.

00;22;50;09 - 00;23;06;03
Chris Manson
So if you want to like you know, if you wanted to like donate, I've had people come to me and say, hey, can I give you money or can you do cash? Or I could make a donation. Again, I'm not taking it. But again, this 501c3 is so that, you know, it's all you know, all the, all the i's are dotted and teaser crossed and stuff.

00;23;06;03 - 00;23;22;06
Chris Manson
So those are really the three ways or, and I guess the fourth thing I'd say is: if this moves you in, if it speaks to you ... you probably have a private ambulance provider that you work with or you have fire departments that you work with just spread the word. I mean, and I got to tell you, just spreading the word, it works.

00;23;22;27 - 00;23;29;10
Chris Manson
I mean, that's my last several ambulances. And I just I just got a fire engine this morning because someone spread the word.

00;23;30;06 - 00;24;01;24
Alex Rozenbaum
And that's exactly what we're trying to do here, is to really spread that word. And we're also going to have for all of our listeners, we'll have the link to our website. You know, basically, AHA has put to the help for the Ukrainian health care workers, but really the biggest focus here is drive ambulances for Ukraine. So there is a way that you are able to connect to Chris directly through the email, through the connect, and there will be additional information on their website as well that you will be able to see here.

00;24;01;25 - 00;24;12;27
Alex Rozenbaum
So, Chris, anything in the last words, anything else that you want to do, spread the word because hopefully we're going to have a lot of listeners after this podcast.

00;24;12;28 - 00;24;31;18
Chris Manson
No, I mean, I think the one thing I would leave you with or leave the listeners with is I think the people that when you do contribute, I'll put this way, I've never had anyone say, no, that's the other crazy thing. In a year no one's ever said no, they might not have a vehicle or they may not have some supplies, but they always end up saying, let me see if I can help.

00;24;32;08 - 00;25;00;05
Chris Manson
And what I've found is so I take a lot of I get a lot of pleasure and joy and making and seeing that the vehicles get over to Ukraine. But I got to tell you, there's also just a huge level of positive reaction that you get when someone when they donate an ambulance. And then I'm able to come back with pictures and say, hey, this is the unit, This is where your ambulances, your ambulance is now, you know, running calls in this community or they're training on it or they're doing stuff.

00;25;00;05 - 00;25;04;28
Chris Manson
And, you know, and I'm getting feedback that it's moved so many wounded people or whatever.

00;25;04;28 - 00;25;06;24
Alex Rozenbaum
Or it's been turned into an operating.

00;25;06;24 - 00;25;32;23
Chris Manson
Room. Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. It's an operating you're absolutely right. But I think you cannot underestimate some of these ambulances. Like, for example, Promedica, they took the ambulance and they took it to a few other hospitals so their employees could sign the ambulance. They gave their employees a real connection. OFS employees, our mission partners they brought in, we ask for quick clot and that's like a clotting agent.

00;25;33;03 - 00;25;48;14
Chris Manson
And we ask for emergency blankets and we had a ceremony. I still get people saying, Hey, do you still need more supplies? I mean, you just be surprised at how much of a positive reaction you get once it's actually been donated. And that's been really cool, too.

00;25;49;27 - 00;26;10;04
Alex Rozenbaum
Chris. An incredible story from an incredible human being. Thank your daughter for really getting this ball rolling. And for anyone that says that, you know, one person can't change things in the world. Well, you know, here's an example of how that's that's not true. And I'm personally very grateful. And I know a lot of people in Ukraine are very grateful.

00;26;10;15 - 00;26;32;07
Alex Rozenbaum
I think this is an incredible effort and we're going to continue to support you. So, again, thank you very much, Chris. And one other thing I'll mention is that hopefully we'll get to talk to you in the next couple of months. And that number has gone up from 29 hopefully to the 100 plus that you've been asked by the Ukrainian health ministry.

00;26;32;07 - 00;26;34;10
Alex Rozenbaum
So, you know, we're going to do our best to get you there.

00;26;34;23 - 00;26;54;03
Chris Manson
Well, thank you for this. And, you know, I know you mentioned Odessa before, and I bet, you know, I've loved going to Odessa and I just it's so much it's such a pleasure to be able to participate in something like this because really, I mean, everyone is just so great. The people of Ukraine are great. The people here in America that are Ukrainian are great, and they will just have a little part in this.

00;26;54;25 - 00;26;59;21
Chris Manson
It's just a real honor. So thank you for spreading the word and thank you for giving me this opportunity today.

00;27;00;12 - 00;27;16;20
Alex Rozenbaum
Thank you, Chris. All the best.