A reporter and videographer from WSEE Erie, Pa., are in Poland filing reports for Lilly Broadcasting’s TV properties in Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and the Caribbean. In the five days they’ve been in Poland, it’s been nonstop, working around the clock, they say.
Rachel Knapp may be the only local TV reporter in America who is on the ground in Poland covering the humanitarian efforts there to help the refugees from neighboring Ukraine.
Knapp is the Washington reporter for Lilly Broadcasting, who along with Brian Schnieders, a videographer from WSEE, Lilly’s station in Erie, Pa., are filing daily reports for Lilly’s TV stations in Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and the Caribbean.
The team arrived in Poland on March 20 and will remain in the country until March 30.
In the five days they’ve been in Poland, it’s been a whirlwind, Knapp says. “We have just hit the ground running.”
Knapp says she and Schnieders have been sending live reports from anywhere out on the streets via a Dejero backpack unit.
“We have just been nonstop working like clockwork,” Knapp says. “My photographer and I joked, we didn’t plan for any downtime.”
She says they’ve only had time for a few sit-down meals.
Knapp pitched the idea of going to Poland to Brian Trauring, Lilly’s EVP, suggesting local angles she could cover.
She says Trauring approved the idea, saying: “There is a need for our viewers to hear and see for themselves what is going on over there.”
“There is a local connection,” Trauring says. “We have a company in Erie, Logistics Plus, and they have employees in Ukraine. They are sending assistance to Poland to help get some of those employees out. So, having a local company with a tie to what’s happening was a fairly easy call.”
A story on WSEE’s website says: “Logistics Plus is a leading worldwide provider of transportation and global logistics and has employees in Ukraine. Owner & CEO Jim Berlin has seeded a relief effort with a contribution of $500,000. Knapp and Schnieders will document how the donations are helping provide food and lodging.”
Knapps says when they arrived in Warsaw on Sunday, they immediately noticed signs of support for Ukraine. Warsaw is about five hours by car from Lviv, the western Ukraine city close to Poland’s border.
“We saw buildings lit up in Ukraine’s blue and yellow colors,” Knapp says. “We saw flags, banners hanging from restaurants, museums and buildings. It was immediately like, wow. It truly has been incredible how much Polish local support has been for these people. We have just been amazed.”
Knapp says they are renting a car that comes with a driver/interpreter, a Ukrainian woman who lives in Poland.
On March 24, they were in the town of Zamosc in southern Poland, about an hour from Poland’s border with Ukraine, which is the main hub for Ukrainian evacuees before they are moved to the major cities of Warsaw or Krakow further west, Knapp says.
She says the scene was “chaotic. There’s a million and one things going on there.”
She says as the Ukrainian evacuees walk into Poland from Ukraine, “they were met by different international volunteer organizations or just people that set up their own tents, set up their own food trucks to help the evacuees.”
These volunteers were providing different services for people.
“I saw them helping with cell phone cards; others were passing out toiletries, toothbrushes, toothpaste, while others were giving out free food, clothes,” Knapp says. “I can’t even imagine how these refugees feel. I asked them, you just crossed into Poland and you are being greeted with all these organizations. How do you feel? They said overwhelmed, but in a good way and they are happy to be here.”
Knapp says part of the reason they’re in Poland is following the relief efforts of Logistics Plus.
“We thought it was important for people at our stations I cover to show them who their donations were helping, meeting the people and showing them how it is benefiting them,” Kapp says. “This is what the story is.”
Sending two TV journalists to Poland for 10 days is an expensive commitment for any broadcast company. But especially for a small one.
“We are a smaller company, privately held, owned by the Lilly brothers,” Trauring says. “They have a real commitment to serving the local communities, particularly with stories about humans who are suffering or conversely, humans who are helping those who are suffering.”
Trauring says the overall goal was to do unique reporting exclusive to Lilly stations with really compelling content that shows viewers in their markets what is happening in Poland, “and how they can make a difference through contributing to these organizations that are providing assistance,” Trauring says.
Knapp says she is mindful that the people coming from Ukraine have gone through a horrific experience and so her approach is respectful, but people have been incredibly receptive.
“Most are willing to share their feelings and the relief that they are safe now,” she says.
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Excellent move! This will really help local viewers get a grasp on an “on the ground situation” from people they trust. This is what broadcast local news can do so well.