At any moment Vitaliy Piekhotin’s day could be interrupted by the piercing beep of an emergency pager with details of a tragic incident.

Piekhotin is not a police officer or a firefighter. He is one of three volunteer chaplains with South King Fire who are on-call to provide emotional and spiritual care to community members and first responders who are dealing with extreme trauma and loss of life.

Responding to a scene, he never knows what is waiting for him. Sometimes he is another set of hands to help first responders. Other times he has sat with strangers for hours, just being with them in their grief after losing a loved one.

“You are a stranger from the street, coming into somebody’s house, their lives … and are there for them,” Piekhotin said.

Being a chaplain for South King Fire is a more recent addition to Piekhotin’s community work. He also volunteers for Stand Up Federal Way and has done extensive coordination and advocacy work to help his Ukrainian community here and on the front lines of the current war.

For his tireless efforts to help and comfort those facing tragedy in Ukraine and at home in Federal Way, Piekhotin is the Mirror’s Hometown Hero for the month of January.

Being a chaplain in Federal Way means Piekhotin provides comfort and support to people from a wide range of cultures, religions and traditions. These experiences have changed him, Piekhotin said.

One morning he responded to a scene where a Guatemalan man had died by suicide after his wife had left for work.

He waited for her to return for over an hour with about 20 grieving friends, family members and neighbors. One man, Romano, was the only one who spoke any English.

Piekhotin described the scene when the man’s wife returned, saying “she’s crying…and then there’s me, a white Ukrainian American chaplain, who doesn’t speak Spanish, but through Google translate and Romano…and I’m comforting her. At the end, when I’m leaving, I always offer a prayer, and they see me on my knees, holding her hands and praying for her and Romano to translates my prayer…and everybody’s crying,” he said.

Piekhotin is also an immigrant after moving to the United States from Ukraine 23 years ago, but he said he used to spend most of his time with the Slavic community who share his culture, and didn’t know many people from other communities personally.

Connecting with people who are different from him “helped me to develop myself…my heart is getting bigger, to have all those people in my heart.”

Piekhotin said that being there with the Guatemalan community in their grief, “talked to my heart a lot and changed my vision…that story and that situation really changed my life.”

“I don’t know their status … you know how it’s going with the politics of Trump … but they came here for better. They are working. They are doing some hard work here,” Piekhotin said. “When you get into the community, you hear their stories, their lifestyles, and how they’re trying to survive, to get on their feet. They’re not going to do bad things.”

Federal Way is one of the most diverse zip codes in the United States. Many community members have close ties around the world and are feeling the impact of recent Executive Orders from the new presidential administration.

The local Ukrainian community in Federal Way is feeling those impacts along with many other refugee, asylee and immigrant communities, he said.

Part of what motivates Piekhotin to contribute to his local community is the welcome and support he said he and his Ukrainian community have received from the U.S. and the Federal Way community specifically.

Next week, Piekhotin will be spending the week in Washington, D.C., to advocate for the Ukrainian community as well as ask for federal aid and for the Uniting for Ukraine program to be continued.

He also will be taking a trip to Ukraine again soon, this time in collaboration with a group of retired U.S. veterans who provide expertise in foreign countries to train civilians on how to remove landmines.

He and his wife, Irina, are working to raise money to purchase two ambulances to deliver to soldiers in Ukraine through their organization Servants of Compassion.

This will be his 11th trip to Ukraine to bring supplies and volunteer to help people there since the war began.

This work has been strongly supported by the city of Federal Way. A letter from Mayor Jim Ferrell to Federal Way’s sister city Rivne actually helped him and Irena and other volunteers get through a checkpoint while delivering the vehicles.

A photo of fallen soldiers from Ukraine, a heart created by a child in Ukraine to hearten soldiers in the war, medals given to Vitaliy Piekhotin for his work and a Ukrainian flag signed by volunteers delivering medical supplies. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

During his interview, Vitaliy Piekhotin’s emergency pager went off, sharing details of an incident in progress in Auburn. He is on-call 24/7 as a chaplain for South King Fire. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

Vitaliy and Irina Piekhotin in Ukraine in front of the two ambulances they delivered and a building that has been bombed. Photo provided by Vitaliy Piekhotin.