East Bay Tesla club collecting donations for Ukraine refugees

ALAMEDA, Cali. - They call themselves the Tesla Owners of the East Bay. It seems like your typical neighborhood car club, but the group of more than 80 try to be more.

With their low-noise, souped up cars, the dozens of Tesla owners meet up monthly for a coffee and hang out at the Whisk Creations Pastry and Coffee shop in Alameda. Sunday morning, the meet up was much more significant.

"We're not spending money on gas, let's do something good with that," said Peggy Wolf, a member of the TOEB leadership team.

She calls the stories from Ukraine heartbreaking, referencing the many headlines describing the destruction of buildings and deaths of civilians. For her, the war is personal.

"My grandparents were from Ukraine," said Wolf. "I went there on a business trip in 2011 and one of the customers I met with was killed in the fighting the other day. So this is personal and we care."

Care, now shown in the form of flashlights, blankets, non-perishable foods and medical supplies. The owner of Whisk Creations committed to donating Sunday morning proceeds to the cause.

"It hurts my heart," said Henry Awayan. "The only thing we can do is give back. This is one thing that they are doing, doing what they can, and we're going to try to do what we can."

The group is partnering with the Bay Area non-profit White Pony Express, headquartered in Pleasant Hill. They've already worked on collecting donations and shipping them overseas since the start of the war.

"Medical supplies are key right now," said board member Isa Campbell. "Tourniquets, bandages, over the counter drugs are a big need. We're all one family, that's how we look at it."

Donations will be stored at White Pony's offices. The group invested $1,000 in medical supplies and hope to ship them to Ukraine by next week.