Today, I’m asking for help, launching a fund raising drive to send the RISSE soccer team to a two-day youth program at the Powell House, a Quaker conference center in Chatham, New York, just outside of Albany. I want to raise $1,600 for an experience that will be of enormous value to these children, who have seen so much suffering and change.
(The weekend will cost $2,100, I’m contributing $500 of my own money to get it going. This could be very important for the soccer team, even life changing.)
I believe this would be the greatest possible gift for them, they are working so valiantly to move forward with their lives in America, even as controversy shrouds the very idea of the refugee, and they shrug off the growing taunts of their school classmates.
I am signing a contract Monday for a weekend in May to hold space in the Powell House, where the soccer team players can spend two days on a weekend in May, gather, talk to one another, with the help of the two highly trained and experienced counselors who run the youth program – Chris DeRoller and Mike Clark.
For months, I’ve been looking for the right retreat center for these kids, and then I remembered my own experiences working with the Powell House Youth Program. My daughter Emma went there on some weekends, and I often stayed over to help the counselors. I was (am) a member of a Quaker Meeting in northern New Jersey.
The Powell House, located on a beautiful campus in the country, is the very beautiful and historic conference and retreat center of the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. (Quakers.)
It seems the place I was looking for was just an hour away.
For centuries, Quakers have opened their hearts and meeting houses to refugees and immigrants. They helped Native-Americans driven off their lands and rejected slavery long before the Civil War.
The youth conferences, says the Powell House mission statement, “is for those who with to grow, share, and care in community. We welcome all youth. The group thrives in the wide diversity of spiritual traditions that our attenders bring. We practice and experience the testimonies of peace, equality, simplicity, integrity and community.”
In a sense, the Quakers saved my life. When I was 14 and in great trouble, I wandered into a Quaker Meeting House in Providence, R.I., where I was welcomed and helped, I believe they saved my life. I know what they can do.
The youth retreat, say Mike and Chris on the Powell House website, is a place to be safe and open, a time to rest and reflect, and to feel deep relationships. The Quakers have a long tradition of working with young people in special circumstances. I have complete confidence in the care and compassion of these people.
I can also say that this is something these kids very much need. They have all suffered trauma, and sometimes horror and have come together in this soccer team to form a powerful community of support and hope. The weekend would be structured and closely supervised, but there would also be freedom and safety.
I believe this weekend retreat is something they urgently, and deserve. So I’m asking for help in sending them on this two-day experience – May 18-20, the money pays for six meals, two counselors, two nights. Ali and a second teacher would be accompanying the team.
When I saw Ali in Albany with the team Thursday (Francis Sengabo, the founder of RISSE, is on the right), every single one of the boys came over to hug me, and I was profoundly affected by that.
I asked Ali if he suggested that, and he said no, it was their own impulse. We are becoming family. It meant a lot to me.
Ali has been watching over these boys since they were seven and eight – they are between 13 and 15 now, and they have all taken a blood oath to be friends all of their lives. I believe they mean it.
When I spoke with Regina Baird Haag, the co-Executive Director of the Powell House, about the retreat, I felt an instant connection, she had an intuitive understanding of what these children needed and would benefit from.
This weekend is not about recreation, it is about empowerment and inner strength and trust.
She said the Powell House had been looking for ways to connect with the refugee and immigrant community, if you believe in karma, ours was good. Quakers have a long history of supporting refugees. I felt this was meant to be, the Powell House and RISSE would both benefit from connecting with one another.
Regina said the Powell House would consider lowering the price if we couldn’t raise the money, but I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I said we wanted to pay their regular fee, if we couldn’t afford it we shouldn’t go. That’ s my boundary, and it feels appropriate to me. No misunderstandings or haggling.
She said she appreciated that, and I am hopeful we can raise the money.
Ali and I have already been fantasizing about finding a place where the soccer team could spend a week this summer, out of the hot and crowded city, and in a beautiful place with a pond and woods and space to run and play soccer. The Powell House might be it.
So no beating around the bush, I need $2,100 to do this.
Regina is sending me a contract on Monday, and I’ll sign it and set about to raise this money on the blog. As I mentioned, I will be the first to contribute to this project by committing $500 of my own money to get it started.
That means I need just $1,600 more to pay for the weekend.
If you wish to help, you can send a check to me – Jon Katz, Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. Please mark your donation or check “Powell House,” and thanks for considering it.
