NEWRY, Maine — Every week George Fox is on the slopes at Sunday River helping people with disabilities experience the thrill of skiing.
As a volunteer with Maine Adaptive, he works as a guide, sometimes using special gear to bring them down the mountain regardless of their challenges.
"It's just so much fun," Fox said. "That's part of life. Doing things for others."
But it is thousands of miles away in Ukraine where Fox found the importance of giving back in a very different way.
Fox said he first made it to the country in February 2022 almost by accident, when a trip to visit a friend in Poland was scheduled just as Russian troops were invading the neighboring country.
"I said, 'I'm going to the border. I'm going to help. I know I can do something,'" Fox said.
Once he made it to the Poland-Ukraine border, he found crowds of people fleeing the country.
Fox said what surprised him the most was the sense of calm in the midst of chaos.
"There was no panic," he said. "They weren't people that were freaked out. These were people that were almost expressionless that were fleeing terror, but they were the word that I keep using is stoic."
Fox said all he had to give was his rental car, so he used it to shuttle family after family to safety. Many of the people he carried were women and children along with pets and nothing but what they could carry in suitcases.
As weeks passed, he made more and more connections with other aid workers from all over the world. He said he found one organization that asked him to help with a supply into the city of Lviv.
That was when the reality of war really sank in for him.
"I looked and here's this big black smoke on the other side of these buildings and it was the very first missile strike that Lviv had taken," Fox said.
Even now after a total of three trips in the past year, Fox said it is hard for him to truly understand what the Ukrainian people are living with every day. The stories he heard were heavy and unforgettable.
"Even I, being there, couldn't appreciate what some of these people have gone through," Fox said. "Ukrainians' firsthand experience of having a Russian invasion where they're actually in your house, and they're on your daughter, that kind of stuff. They're shooting your dog."
Fox said while he does not work with any one particular organization, he has found a network of other people doing everything they can to help, like running refugee camps and transporting supplies to hospitals and schools.
He said every Ukrainian he has interacted with is grateful for the support but also determined to beat Russia.
"The thing is they're pissed," Fox said. "And that is what is driving them to maintain their determination."
Which is why even in the peace he found in the Maine mountains, he is determined to one day return to the war-torn country to help some more.
"I know I'll go back. I just know it," Fox said.