Fort McCoy Donations

From Brandi:

In the coming days, we will be receiving two donation bins with signage from Journey Disaster Relief, collecting donations for Afghan community members arriving at Fort McCoy. The Journey Disaster Relief Team will check in on the bins occasionally and pick up donations. Should you notice a bin nearing capacity, please let me know. Currently, the greatest need is for new modest clothing. We will not need to sort through the donations, but please keep an eye on the bins like we do other times of the year that we collect donations to make sure no one mistakes them for trash or book returns. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you to Tessa and Rosa, who both brought up opportunities for us to be a part of providing a more welcoming start to these families. 

Note from Barb: This cause is particularly important to me, as my own parents were war refugees. They came to America with one trunk full of possessions, one trunk more than many of the refugees now at Fort McCoy. After processing at Ellis Island, they found their way to a cafe in downtown NYC where they ordered a cup of coffee, all they could afford. The cafe owner, hearing their German accents, asked them if they were new arrivals to America, and when they said yes he paid their bill and welcomed them to their new country. This was 1953, 8 years after World War II ended, a devastating war that touched every family, every person in America, and there was much anti-German sentiment in the air. And yet that man showed tremendous hospitality to my parents. My parents told that story over and over throughout their lives and all the stories of kind acceptance that followed. This was the America I was told about, this was the America I was taught to love. Let's show that America to the people now arriving from Afghanistan who gave up everything to help their country and the American soldiers stationed there, but now have been cast out as refugees. Let's welcome them to America the way my parents were welcomed so long ago.

My heart thanks you.

Barb