From Equity Week to Ukraine: Brewster Students Take Action

Brewster’s Equity Week is already creating ripple effects far beyond campus, beginning with a last-minute phone call and a speaker who agreed to address the community with less than a day’s notice. When a student from Ukraine who was scheduled to speak became ill, Will Brochu ’26 reached out to his Georgetown interviewer, Alan Himmer, who lives in Gilford, N.H., and is the co-founder of the Ukraine Crisis Aid Group (UCAG). Himmer, a retired international business executive of Ukrainian descent, launched UCAG with his wife Megan and five high school friends after reconnecting with relatives in western Ukraine. Since 2022, he has made multiple trips each year to deliver nonlethal aid, driving into cities under bombardment to bring portable power units, ambulances, and medical supplies directly to hospitals and front-line crews.

At Brewster’s All School, he stood before students and faculty and described in stark terms the human cost of the full-scale invasion: daily air raids that send families to basements multiple times a night, mass casualties for small gains of territory, and documented war crimes and child abductions that have torn children from their parents and their language. He contrasted Russian military doctrine with the Ukrainian commitment to risk “ten men to rescue one” wounded soldier, underscoring the value placed on every individual life.

Only after painting that picture did Himmer turn to how his organization operates, outlining UCAG’s core principles of zero overhead so every donated dollar goes directly to aid, a strict chain of custody for all supplies, and a commitment to delivering nonlethal, life-saving support as close to the front lines as possible.

“I’ve never seen a speaker that moved or galvanized the student body so much,” said Will. “Mr. Himmer’s experience from the front lines was a powerful perspective to end the week.”

Himmer’s speech sparked both curiosity and action. He described how the installation of drone detectors on ambulances has helped protect crews from Russian drone strikes, prompting many members of Brewster’s robotics team to stay afterward to learn more about the science behind this life-saving technology.

For students like Luke Smolan ’26, the main takeaway was not the science, but the accessibility of making a difference. “What stood out to me was how Mr. Himmer connected a huge event to everyday choices,” Luke said. “It made his message feel practical, not just inspirational.”

Students in Brewster’s Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Club took this message of practical support to heart. When they met the next day to begin planning for RAK Week, the conversation quickly turned to Himmer’s visit, and the group voted to direct $1,000 of their fundraising to the Ukraine Crisis Aid Group, wanting their own “micro-decision,” as Himmer called it, to matter.

In his detailed thank-you message to the club, Himmer traced exactly how that gift will travel from Wolfeboro to the front lines. Of the $1,000, $750 will purchase a New Use Energy 605 battery backup power unit sitting in a warehouse in Lviv, which will be shipped to a civilian ambulance service in Kherson, three miles from the Russian front lines. Once in service, that portable power will allow medics to bring electricity into buildings hit by missiles, operate defibrillators and respirators without running an engine that could attract drones, and, he estimates, save one additional life every one to two weeks.

The remaining $250 will fund eight tourniquets for people living and working near the front, a number he expects will save two lives and four limbs. “You just reached out halfway around the world and made a difference,” he wrote to the students. “You did so with no benefit to yourselves. That is what being human is all about.”

For Brewster senior Max Rusov ’26, the topic and the lives saved feel especially personal. “As someone with multiple family members going through what’s happening in Ukraine, learning about Mr. Himmer’s organization and the work he’s done gives me hope about the future.”