Who We Are
World Aid Runners (“W.A.R.”) is a registered non-profit corporation in the United States formed to facilitate the participation of its principals in the humanitarian effort for the people of Ukraine (and, in the future, potentially in other humanitarian “hot spots”). The principals of W.A.R. are three American volunteers: Willian J. Waggonner, an attorney in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a retired U.S. Marine; Benjamin G. Dusing, a former federal prosecutor in the United States now in private practice in the U.S. operating his own law firm in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, and a Russian-speaker; and John W. Gardner, a friend, and colleague of Dusing’s. Waggoner serves as General Director of W.A.R., Dusing as Director of Humanitarian Operations, and Gardner as Field Coordinator.
Dusing and Waggoner met at the Medyka, Poland border crossing weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, where both had traveled as foreign volunteers to help the Ukrainian volunteers fleeing war-torn Ukraine. A special friendship was formed, cemented by their shared belief in the righteousness of the Ukrainian cause and a love for the people of Ukraine. The pair have worked together to help the people of Ukraine ever since. Dusing has made seven trips abroad to assist the humanitarian effort for the people of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2002. The first two trips were to the Medyka, Poland border crossing, where Dusing (and Waggoner) assisted the refugees. Dusing’s third trip was to Kyiv, in the summer of 2022, to escort a refugee he had met at the border back to the United States, where she lived with his family for several months recovering from her war-weariness. Gardner, Chief of Staff at Dusing’s law firm, joined Dusing for his fourth trip and has been a critical team member ever since. Dusing and Gardner traveled to Kharkiv in the fall of 2022, where they assisted humanitarian organizations delivering aid to the newly liberated territories in the Kharkiv region and performed other humanitarian missions upon request. Dusing and Gardner returned to Kharkiv in the winter of 2022-23, where they assisted other humanitarian organizations in delivering humanitarian aid to so-called “hot zones” in the Kharkiv and Donbas regions. Upon request of organizations assisting the 28th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Dusing, and Gardner assisted the brigade in the Bahkmut theater, performing second-line medical evacuations of wounded soldiers for a time. Dusing and Gardner were then asked to help in the newly liberated southern front, specifically in Kherson, Ukraine, in February 2022, performing evacuations of the non-ambulatory. Since then, Dusing and Gardner have returned to Kherson for multi-month terms of service on the ground, rotating home to the United States in between their in-country humanitarian service. Waggoner has also made several in-country trips to assist on an ad hoc basis.
W.A.R. was formally formed in late 2022 to hold title to the assets acquired by Dusing and Waggoner (3 humanitarian vehicles, including two convertible ambulances that can transport a large amount of humanitarian aid and evacuate the non-ambulatory) and to facilitate the tax-deductibility of qualifying donations by those desiring to support their efforts. In September 2023, W.A.R. became what is believed to be the first non-local humanitarian organization to establish a brick-and-mortal presence in Kherson, leasing and maintaining an office in the city center. Dusing and Gardner also lease living space in the city center, residing there now part-time.
W.A.R. is in the process of becoming registered in Ukraine as a non-profit organization.
Although Waggoner, Dusing, and Gardner are the principals of World Aid Runners, the organizational presence on the ground includes a team of international and local volunteers and, at times, compensated locals, bigger or smaller, at any given time in proportion to the then-existing humanitarian workload.