CHURCHILL FALLS, N.L. — It was more than 20 years ago that Bern and Cynthia Mackey took a vacation that would change their lives, and lives of two children, forever.
While they were waiting at the Gander airport, returning to Churchill Falls, they overheard a conversation amongst children using a foreign language.
“I said ‘jeez, what language are they using?’ said Bern. “When we got aboard the aircraft, I happened to be sitting with the lady who seemed to be looking after these children … so she explained the program to us.”
The program was called the Canadian Relief Fund for Chernobyl Victims in Belarus. Parts of Belarus were affected by radiation due to the 1986 explosion of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine. This relief fund helped bring children in the contaminated zones to Canada for the summer to give their bodies a break from radiation. During those summer months, they would be billeted with volunteer parents.
Not long after the conversation at the airport, Bern was listening to a radio talk show in his office. They just so happened to be talking about the same program, and a woman on the radio show mentioned they still needed more parents to volunteer to take care of children during the summer. That same day Bern and Cynthia called the Canadian Relief Fund for Chernobyl Victims in Belarus and told them they wanted to help.
“A little while later they called back and said, ‘well, we got this little boy and I’m going to tell you upfront he was a bit of trouble last summer in St. John’s; a little bit hyper and didn’t know what time to go to bed,’” recalled Bern.
“I said, ‘well listen, send that kid along because if he’s more hyper than my son was — my son could walk on the ceiling after a coke and a chocolate bar — send him along because I got to see this.
“June comes and we go to Lab City (at the airport) and we pick up this little boy. We never looked back.”
The nine-year-old boy they picked up was Max Dubitski, from the Belarus town of Chausey – located 480 kms from Chernobyl. For the next seven summers he would become a popular fixture during the summer months at Churchill Falls. It also didn’t take Max very long to develop a bond with Bern and Cynthia.
“I said, ‘Max, my name is Bern’. He said ‘okay, I call you Dad’, and he never called us anything else, only Dad and Mom,” said Bern.
One of Bern’s earliest memories of Max was when he first tried to take the young boy from Belarus on a bike ride around Churchill Falls. When he asked Max if he ever rode a bike before, the adventurous, outgoing, child of course said yes.
“I’m blowing up the tires on my bike and I look around – no Max. So, he must have went on down the street, right? Next thing you know I hear this voice, ‘Dad, Dad,’ and he’s dragging the bike out of the ditch. He knew no more about a bike then I know about rocket science,” said Bern with a laugh.
“But within 15 minutes he could race me on it.”
It wasn’t long before Max began making friends in Churchill Falls of all ages. He even began golfing with a local RNC officer.
“Max came as a little boy, nine-years-old; that child would introduce himself, look you in the eye, and shake your hand. He was a man in a little boy’s body,” said Cynthia.
On top of giving Max a summer’s worth of fresh air, it was important for Bern and Cynthia to make sure Max was properly fed, especially since he couldn’t eat certain foods in Belarus, due to contamination. Bern remembers once having to chug a glass of milk to prove that the beverage was safe to drink.
“(I told him), Max, in Canada, cows don’t have (radiation).”
Bern and Cynthia could tell just by changes in Max’s physical appearance that his summers in Churchill Falls did wonders for his health.
“You could see it when he’d come (to Churchill Falls), he’d have bags under his eyes and not much colour. You give him 10 days to two weeks … he’d go from daylight to dark until he dropped,” recalled Bern.
Bern eventually became the Labrador coordinator of the program. In total, six children from Belarus spent summers throughout Labrador to get a much-needed break from the radiation caused by Chernobyl.
“Their doctors over there and our doctors in Canada, after research, came to the conclusion that, if they got out every year for 6-10 weeks, their chances on contracting thyroid cancer … went down somewhere around 80 per cent,” said Bern.
Bern and Cindy’s house grew a bit larger during Max’s seventh and final summer in Churchill Falls, when Max’s sister, Maria, joined him in the program.
Like Max, Maria quickly bonded with Bern and Cynthia. Unlike Max, however, she was quieter and more reserved.
“She was very pleasant. She helped around the house, because she had to do that at home (in Belarus),” recalled Cynthia.
“The biggest thing was her room. Her room was her absolute castle. Nobody was allowed to go into her room.”
“We had such an outpouring of help from the community of Churchill Falls, Goose Bay and Labrador City. They embraced this program, so she had more toys than you can imagine.”
Maria’s love of her room made it difficult for her to be punished when she didn’t want to eat her supper.
“Maria knew like three words (in English) when she first came here, and one of them was crap,” laughed Bern.
During her first summer in Churchill Falls, when she didn’t want to eat, she would simply say “supper crap.”
“I said, ‘okay Maria, if you’re not going to eat your supper, go to your room,” recalls Bern. “Maria gets up and says ‘okay’ with a big smile on her face.”
Max started laughing as Maria went to her room, which prompted Bern to ask Max what was so funny.
“He said. ‘in Belarus, Maria don’t even have room. In there she has barbie dolls, she has her own tv, her own stereo.”
In total, Max spent seven summers with Bern and Cindy, while Maria spent five. In 2008, the couple received the shocking news that the program was ending abruptly. It was an unexpected phone call that broke Bern and Cindy’s hearts.
“I’m not even comfortable talking about it now,” said Bern. “They were the same as our children.”
Bern and Cindy, who now live in Gambo, NL, still keep in touch with Max and Maria, who are young adults living their lives in Belarus. The couple still look back fondly on the summers spent with their Belarusian children.
“A lot of people said, ‘oh, you did a great thing,’” said Bern. “Yah, we did a great thing, but Max and Maria brought life back to our house.”
