Search Results for: RISSE

The Amazon Mansion Wish List requests are up and running, the RISSE Wish List, the first one, is a runaway success. The Mansion Wish List is only two days old and is off to a fine start, we went from 43 items to 6 overnight. mostly board games and trays and puzzles for the Activity Room, where the residents spend much of their day. I brought three sombreros today for the  upcoming Cinqo de Mayo celebration.

Activities are the structure and foundations of life at the Mansion, there is always something to do and try, thanks to the Army Of Good.

A new RISSE Amazon Wish List went up yesterday, there are 16 items on it,  it is focused on learning tools for the refugee children, and some practical things for adults. I have been pushing the idea of wish lists for some time, it’s an effective and innovative way to do good. I start every morning that way, it is a powerful antidote to the news and life’s frustrations.

You can see the new Mansion Wish List here.

You can see the RISSE Wish List here.

It is fascinating for me to see how these two lists converge and also diverge. Both needs stimulating or educational activities, both need practical things like working gloves trays. Both have been neglected or pushed out of sight by our culture. Both are in great need. Thanks for supporting them.

To me, both groups are symbols of the people and country we wish to be, I think, statements of our values and empathy. I am startled at how much the same they are.

The new RISSE Amazon Wish List is up and running again, this time a mix of arts and utilitarian things needed by  RISSE – refugee and immigrant support group – in Albany. Emma, above, is one of the teachers who has access to the list, and she is pushing hard for the arts supplies – beads, origami, brushes and puzzles, batteries and the other things a desperately underfunded school needs.

Today, I’m buying batteries, threads and beads – $24. Thanks so much for supporting the list. I read today that 40 percent of Americans support the new administration’s policies on refugees and immigrations. We are now willing to bomb Damascus, but we won’t let any of the hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees into our country.

This only inspires me to work harder.

This is shameful to me, and causes me to redouble my own efforts to help these children, their parents and the many immigrants who are struggling to acclimate themselves to our suddenly hostile nation. A tough time, you are offering hope and love, and I thank you.

Here’s the list.

You can help support my work with these children and the soccer team and the new girl’s basketball team by sending a contribution to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

As of this week, every class at RISSE has a new beginner’s digital camera that takes photos and videos. The three V-Tech Selfie Blue Camera all came with a memory chip. This model has been widely praised as an inexpensive and simply entry to photography, they cost $49 each and are a huge hit to the RISSE kids.

Every child has the right to develop their own culture, we are providing some of the tools to do it.

When families need food and clothing, the tools of culture and creativity often get left out. We are trying to fill some of those holes. We are not miracle workers, we are hole fillers. Now, the kids can capture their own images and stories, which will all be posted on a whit board on the school walls.

See what you did. Thanks.

It was a particular joy to see Emma and her bead class, making bracelets with the spools and beads  you bought for them through the RISSE Amazon Wish List.

The RISSE children are loving these beads and working hard to make necklaces and bracelets for themselves and their families. You have changed the atmosphere of the school so much. The kids love these bean bag chairs you bought. They love the table you bought and the beads you bought.

They will, I am sure, love the posters you bought for the walls. What a gift to be able to bring such joy and creativity to these children. Three weeks ago, the room was bare, there was nothing in it but some used books in a bookshelf. There was no light, and no place to sit.

It’s a different world there now – games, puzzles, arts and crafts, music and painting, drawing and photography. Thanks so much.

(You can contribute to this work by sending a contribution to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 or via Paypal, [email protected] You  are angels, thank ou.)

Video by Maria Wulf

I am eager for you, the Army Of Good, to see what you have done at RISSE through your many generous gifts to the RISSE Amazon Wish List. I couldn’t begin to list all of the gifts you have sent to RISSE, the school is transformed into a busy and colorful and exciting space.

The drums and cymbals you sent are new, and very much loved. Come and see above.

There are only two items left on the wish list, some recycling containers and some Lego Batman Coloring Books. The children have many educational and creative tools to work with. This week, the teachers sent up a drum room so some of the kids let off steam and also play music that is  traditional and culturally important to them.

Maria decided to join me at RISSE today, I was grateful for her company, the kids love her. She took the video about of several of the RISSE students beating the drums you purchased for them on the wish list. They just arrived a few days ago. If you want to feel good about the world, just take a look at their faces while they play.

One of the boys, I won’t mention his name, has been suffering awful taunts from the American-born children in his school, they constantly make fun of his dark color. Ali has talked with him and told him to tell the children he is grateful to God for the color he has been given. He never smiled when I first met him, he is smiling now.

The drums have connected him to his world and given him strength and pride. Thanks, you can support these children by donating to the Gus Fund (a/k/a) the Children’s Refugee Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., or via Paypal, [email protected]. Thanks.

The Wish List has been a godsend for RISSE. Small acts of great kindness. I want you to see what you have done.