“Volunteering is at the core of being a human. No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.”
– Heather Frency Henry
Pierson Wireless employee and Olathe, Kansas resident Paige Barrows is a multitasker of the highest order. During a normal Monday through Friday, she plays an important role at Pierson Wireless as a Business Analyst, generating company-wide reports and assisting with developing analytic tools for the enterprise. Then she has what she calls her “second full-time job,” her efforts to generate humanitarian aid for a country she once called home – Ukraine.
Following completing her undergraduate degree at Kansas State University, Barrows spent two and a half years, from 2010 to 2012, as a member of the Peace Corps stationed in Ukraine and teaching English and American culture in a school with over 400 students. She composed lesson plans and taught in full classrooms, smaller groups, and individual tutoring sessions while instructing local educators on teaching methodologies. She organized youth development programs and events, including summer camps, awareness weeks, and community clean-up efforts.
The time in Ukraine shaped Barrows, and like most Peace Corps volunteers, she felt a deep and authentic connection with the community she served. And when that same community was impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Barrows felt her innate need to reach out and assist the people she had grown closely with over her time aboard.
“I stayed really close to some of my friends and colleagues there and went back to visit in 2019,” Barrow said. “When the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, I just started doing everything I possibly could to help. Fortunately, I still have a lot of the networks that I established previously, and I’ve been able to utilize them.”
Those networks, her passion for volunteer work, and her ability to connect with and inspire others to give created a groundswell of support.
“I did everything I possibly could, including social media, fundraising, and contacting local media,” Barrows said. “I advocated in Washington, D.C., and locally. I’m just a few hundred dollars away from raising $100,000 for humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and I’m pretty proud of that. Since the war began, I’ve collected and shipped over 200 pounds of supplies. This money raised has paid for one and half tons of food, a life-saving surgery for a two-week-old orphan, 2,000 boxes of medicine, bandages, insulin, syringes, and much more.”
Her efforts have taken her to our nation’s capital.
“I advocated in Washington, D.C., and locally,” Barrows noted. “In September 2022, I met with several representatives of the United States Senate and House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., at the Ukraine Action Summit.”
According to Barrows, who is also a mother of two, the schedule can get hectic at times, but she feels supported in her efforts by her Pierson Wireless family.
“(Volunteering) is basically my second full-time job,” Barrows said. “I have my job at Pierson (Wireless), and I have my Ukraine volunteer work. And Pierson Wireless has been really supportive of that. My co-workers are great, and they ask a lot of questions, which is great because it’s something that’s really important to me.”
And there will be more questions in the future, particularly when Barrows returns from her third trip to Ukraine to deliver humanitarian aid in April 2024.
To learn more about Paige Barrows’ efforts, check out her appearances at the links below on Kansas City area media outlets KMBC and KSHB.
KMBC Kansas City (May 31, 2023)
https://www.kmbc.com/article/olathe-woman-relief-volunteering-ukraine/44056451
KSHB Kansas City (June 23, 2023)
https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/olathe-woman-returns-from-humanitarian-trip-to-ukraine-with-strong-resolve-to-help
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