“[I was] watching the news and seeing the atrocities that are being inflicted on Ukrainian people by Russia made me realize that there must be something that we can possibly do from here.” – CTV interview with Lukaszuk, March 2022

It started with a late-night call to Ed Stelmach and resulted in more than $35,000,000 in humanitarian aid; the largest civilian humanitarian foreign aid effort in Canadian history. Working with Polish Airlines LOT for an aircraft and Shell for fuel, 67 refugees landed in Edmonton and a Boeing 787 was filled with necessities, clothing, and medical supplies on its way back to Warsaw.

For Thomas, there is a personal connection to this cause as his family was forced to leave Poland under Soviet Martial Law oppression.