Renegade Relief
Aviation alum creates nonprofit to help vulnerable Ukrainians
by Autumn Thatcher (MSC ’15)
Christopher “Chris” Tiller (’15) was at a bachelor party in the woods when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. A commercial airline pilot with a penchant for history, Chris had been paying attention to the escalating conflict between the two countries. When the invasion started, he couldn’t look away from the news reels lighting up his phone, not even to celebrate the soon-to-be groom with his friends.
“I was watching jets and helicopters shooting rockets into apartment buildings, and it just absolutely drove something into me,” Chris recalls. “I just remember thinking there’s got to be something I can do.”
Chris couldn’t shake the feeling that he had something to offer. What that was, he hadn’t quite figured out, but he had the ability to travel freely, and he had relentless determination—a character trait that he says was inspired in him by Bill Ogilvie, his former Westminster aviation professor.
“I spent days of phone calls and research trying to get hold of somebody; there was nothing. So I was like, screw it. I’m going to put together a fundraiser,” Chris says. “If I can get the time off, I'll go over there for a month, I'll see what I can do, and we’ll go from there.”
With $7,000 raised and 20 duffel bags in tow, Chris headed for Ukraine. He began visiting refugee camps to inquire as to how he could help. The answer, he discovered, lay in his van. Chris became what he refers to as a “hardcore FedEx driver.” The job was dangerous, but the need was great. Chris’s work allowed for everyday necessities and life-saving items to be delivered to Ukrainians who were living in parts of the country occupied by Russians— where other organizations were unwilling to go.
“I met more friends; we banded together and decided to do something more efficient,” Chris says. “Before we knew it, we were convoying tons of stuff across a country the size of Texas every four or five days.”
When he returned home, Chris woke up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. Standing in his dark kitchen, he was keenly aware of the silence. No rockets. No blasts. It felt wrong. Chris asked for another six months off and headed back to Ukraine, reuniting with his friends to increase their services. Six months became a year and a half, seeing Chris resign from his job and form a nonprofit organization dubbed Renegade Relief Foundation.
“We went from being a bunch of multinational idiots with crappy vans trying to fumble around and find stuff to do to becoming one of the largest foreign independent aid organizations in Ukraine,” Chris says. “We have 14 vehicles that we operate, and we move several hundred tons of aid per quarter into the country and as far east as it can possibly go.”
Now, Chris manages the nonprofit from Tennessee, where he is working as a pilot for Air Wisconsin.
As he looks to the future, Chris reflects on his past with fondness. His time as a first-generation student in Westminster’s aviation program, which sunset in 2021, was formative in a somewhat indirect way, he says, for the way in which his journey unfolded.
“There is a lot of value in a small college with a tight-knit community full of professors that actually know and care about their students. I had some struggles of just making it through the experience of being a first-generation college student,” Chris says. “Being able to make it through that instilled in me this concept that there is no failure if there is always a way forward. If it weren’t for the care that the aviation department showed me and the time that Bill spent working on me—and the example he put forward during my time there—I never would’ve learned that lesson, and I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Learn more about Renegade Relief Foundation
About the Westminster Review
The Westminster Review is Westminster University’s bi-annual alumni magazine that is distributed to alumni and community members. Each issue aims to keep alumni updated on campus current events and highlights the accomplishments of current students, professors, and Westminster alum.
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