Dave Kovalchick - President & Board Member

Dave Kovalchick, from Sykesville, PA, has a background in manufacturing facility management. He has always had an interest in helping children or anyone else in need.

Through Dave’s passion for traveling and love of Eastern European culture he became involved with helping refugees from Ukraine. In April of 2022 he flew into Romania and helped deliver supplies into the northern part of Ukraine. Later he traveled to the southern part of Ukraine where he helped at several refugee shelters and an orphanage. On his journey, he recognized the long term needs of displaced Ukrainians all over Europe and is now committed to Humanitarian efforts for them and others around the world.

Lynn Lansford - Director/Volunteer Advisor & Board Member

Lynn Lansford is an author, spiritual counselor, a trained death doula and with over 30 years experience with humanitarian aid projects. Her many humanitarian aid projects have taken her around the world, from Romania to Beslan to Haiti to India to – most recently – the Ukraine border. She was a Case Manager for a non-profit organization that helps senior citizens remain in their homes as long as possible with integrity and dignity.

She co-founded Romania Ties over 30 years ago. One of the biggest programs undertaken by Romanian Ties was sponsoring a team of doctors and nurses to travel to Bucharest and perform free eye surgeries for disadvantaged children; this program was so successful that it was continued by Michael Jackson’s Heal the World Foundation.

David Taylor - Vice President & Board Member

David Taylor of Vancouver, Canada, is recently retired and while hiking through Canada, was inspired to do something to help the displaced women of Ukraine become citizens of his home country. Utilizing Canada's newly adopted government program, he traveled to the Ukrainian border raising awareness and providing information to refugees in need. He also developed a plan to help Ukrainian women find jobs and homes in other countries so they can support themselves.

David has dedicated himself to finding new and unique ways to help all refugees and has spearheaded BTI projects, such as the new refugee shelter construction in Izmail and the water well digging in Orlivka. His motivation to seek out new ways to help is invaluable.

Jim Lansford, Ph.D. - Secretary/Technical Advisor & Board Member

Jim Lansford, Ph.D. with over 40 years of experience in communications standards and global regulation. As a director of technical standards for wireless communication at Qualcomm, he has chaired numerous working groups in such international bodies as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the European Technical Standards Institute, the Wi-Fi Alliance, the Bluetooth SIG, the 5G Automotive Alliance, the WiMedia Alliance, the FiRa Consortium, and the OmniAir Consortium.

Eric Bartsch - Team Member

Eric Bartsch, At age 45, Eric was able to retire early, not long after, Eric started living in Slovakia. He moved to the capital, Bratislava and is now a resident of Kosice. At the start of the war in Ukraine he volunteered helping transport refugees at the Slovak border as well as the train station in Kosice. Currently, Eric is dedicated to helping BTI efforts at the refugee shelter in Presov and has supplied the children there with sports equipment and school supplies. He has worked closely with the adults at the shelter to discover their needs and become a sort of Ambassador for BTI so we can help him provide for the refugees.

Eric plans to use his background in film to create a unique element for our organization through BTI YouTube channel featuring interviews with refugees and behind the scenes looks into situations.

Nigel Watson - Team Member

Nigel Watson spent his first 40 years in the port city of Plymouth in Devon, England where he honed his skills as a carpenter. He is now living on the Isle of Wright and is active in his church, which is where he found the inspiration to help people during the war in Ukraine. Nigel's travels took him into Ukraine where he helped many people and animals with food and supplies, and never hesitated to drive into dangerous areas to help with transporting people or dropping off aid. After four months in Ukraine and the surrounding border countries, Nigel is focusing on more fundraising efforts so he can continue his volunteer work.

Jan Dyer - Team Member

Jan Dyer of Isle of Wight, England. Mother, grandmother and now widowed she retired in 2008 after spending her early working life with animals. Jan has a love of animals having owned dogs, cats, horses and pigs. Early in 2022 her life changed, she met Nigel Watson who was collecting donations for his first aid trip to Ukraine. She began fundraising for Ukraine in order to send money out to Nigel to buy extra humanitarian and animal aid whilst he was in Odesa and on his return to England they teamed up and continue to fundraise mainly to help some of the many animal shelters in the Odesa region. Over the last two years her need to help the people and animals in Ukraine has almost taken over her life. Odesa and the animal shelters has become her passion and she lives to help them as and when she and Nigel can. Her hope is to build upon where she and Nigel are now with the fundraising, hence the reason for joining Blue Team International to hopefully maximize her efforts and those of BTI.

About Blue Team International

blue team international waiting to deliver luggage

It is our mission to build and organization capable of mobilizing quickly in a crisis situation and adapting to the ever changing needs of those who are suffering.

Our Story

Blue Team International is a 501c3 non-profit organization providing humanitarian aid in many different ways to refugees and people in need around the world.

Our dedicated volunteers have also participated in rebuilding homes and other buildings for shelter and drilling water wells and other essential infrastructure projects.

Follow our blog for project updates and to see where your generous donations go.

Also, learn where "Blue Team" got its name here.

Our Proud Partners & Sponsors

UAC is focused on providing support for children in Odessa. Many are orphans or children of widows who lost husbands in the war. They also specializing in supporting students of Ukraine through this time and you can sponsor a student from their website for $50 per month.