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Santa Bill Delivers
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STORY TIME: Bill Dick, of Goshen Township, reads from his new book, “Santa Meets God’s Ukrainian Children,” to Zachary Smith, 4, of Columbiana, and Anna and Luke Shevchik, 2 and 5 respectively of Greensburgh, Pa. They were at the Children’s Center for Science & wTechnology, 139 E. Boardman St., on Friday.
Valley man brings gifts to ‘street kids’ of Ukraine
By RICK ROUAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
A $10 “thank you” has gone a long way for some Ukrainian children. Bill Dick, who helps Santa Claus, received the $10 from the father of a girl with whom he was photographed in October 2005. The note accompanying that money said it might buy a small toy or bag of candy for a child.
That triggered a memory for Bill Dick, known as Santa Bill for his St. Nicholas-like deeds.
He found a flier asking for money to buy gifts for Ukrainian children, doubled the $10 and sent it to the organization. Now, four years, two trips to Ukraine and $8,500 later, Dick has written a book about his experience with those children and is using 70 percent of the royalties to provide further help.
“From a small acorn, a giant oak will grow,” said Dick, who lives in Goshen Township.
The book, “Santa Meets God’s Ukrainian Children,” focuses on a 2006 trip Dick made to Ukraine to visit with children, many of whom had been abandoned. It also includes an “encore” about Dick’s 2008 return to Brody, a small town in the Ukraine. The book, which is published by Pennsylvania-based Infinity Publishing, includes an excerpt CD and costs $20 on www.buybooksonline.com.
“After being with these beautiful children, it’s hard to imagine them as street kids,” Dick said.
Dick writes from his personal experience with the Ukrainian children. He read Friday to a group of toddlers at the Children’s Center for Science & Technology, 139 E. Boardman St., about a trip he made with the children along a makeshift road where they encountered a reindeer.
Dick has pledged about $8,500 and several material gifts, including musical instruments, through the organization “Charitable Fund Beregynja.” Dick, a musician who has played in Saxon bands in Europe, began working with Beregynja because of its focus on the arts.
Since then, Dick has provided money to start a counseling center, to buy mattresses and pillows and to replace lights at an orphanage.
But Dick needs to sell his book to generate enough money for some bigger ideas.
He dreams of re-opening an abandoned campground and he has received requests for $10,000 to provide Christmas gifts and put on concerts this year.
Money raised through the book and through personal donations goes to the “Ministry of St. Nicholas Trustee Account” at Huntington Bank, for which Parma-based Fund to Aid Ukraine Inc., is trustee. The Fund to Aid Ukraine Inc., is a registered non-profit organization.
Dick said that he considers the children of Ukraine his “mission field” and that he believes he has been called by God to help them. That belief originated 18 years ago with another calling: to perform kind acts like Santa Claus.
Had Dick not grown a beard, which turned out to be snow white instead of dark brown, he said that he might never have been in a position to receive the $10 “thank you” that spurred his work in Ukraine.
“I feel the holy spirit guides me,” he said. “I just listen to the voice... I’ve internalized the spirit of St. Nicholas in me.”
Dick said he will make a third trip to Ukraine next year but that he can “do them more good back here.”
“My heart says ‘I want to stay,’” he said.