There are a number of ways to help the refugee children, now and in the future. You have done a lot.

Thanks to the Bedlam Farm Army Of Good,  the RISSE soccer team and some of the RISSE school kids will be spending three days at the Pompanuck Retreat and Farming Center outside of Cambridge, N.Y. Fifteen kids from all over the world will be coming – 14 boys and one man – Ali – and three young women and two women teachers and aides.

The women will sleep in the Round House Building a Pompanuck, the boys will sleep in a big Yurt next to an open pasture.

I am up to my neck in planning – food, classes, activities, things to bring.

Thanks to your donations and generosity – I especially thank one very generous women who chooses to remain anonymous – the kids will be eating well: pancake breakfasts, make-your-own-pizzas, sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers, turkey bacon and eggs, campfires at night, hikes in the woods, classes in the daytime.

We’ve given everyone tick instructions.  Pompanuck sits on a beautiful 90 acre tract adjoining a state forest. There is a pond for swimming, numerous hiking trails, a wide open field for practicing soccer or running, and beautiful hills all around.

This will be a precious and valuable retreat for these children, I can’t tell you how excited they are. We have raised enough money to pay for this retreat – it will cost about $1,600. Maria will lead one or two hikes out into the woods, she knows them well.

I will be teaching a writing and story-telling class if anyone there wants that. The artist Rachel Barlow will be teaching an art and drawing class  (she made the 90 creativity kits we gave these kids earlier this year.) Gordon McQuerry will be teaching a music class to the members of the budding Bedlam Farm Musical Band.

Red, Fate and the new puppy, Gus, will be there. Gus starts working right away.

Mandy Meyer-Hill, a massage therapist and healer,  will be teaching a stress and movement class.

I am very excited about this retreat, if any group of children anywhere deserved it, it is these warm and loving kids.  They have been through a lot, and deserve some fun and relaxation.

I will be there and will take pictures and write about it, I will make sure you know what your empathy and kindness has done. Ali (Amjad Abdalla Mohammed) will be supervising the kids, along with the teaching aides, and he will be sleeping in the Yurt with them. We are a generous and caring people, I believe these children are coming to see that.

We are doing a lot of things for the RISSE children right now. We are buying new soccer uniforms, raising money so that the team can practice soccer indoors during the winter, funding Saturday excursions and picnics through the summer, raising money for children whose parents can’t afford school fees over the summer.

In a month, 16 of these children will go to the Great Escape Amusement Park, we thank a wonderful spirit from Minnesota for helping make that possible.

I have opened a special bank account to raise money for a scholarship fund for these children to pay for tutoring, English classes, music or art or computer instruction to help them develop their own special skills and interests. There is about $1,500 alreaduy in that account.

We will begin disbursing it in the next few weeks. If you wish to contribute, you can send a check to The Refugee Children’s Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or you can donate through the Paypal Friends And Family Program, my ID is [email protected].

The other RISSE children, the 80 not on the soccer team, have pressing needs as well, I will be writing about them more frequently in the coming weeks and months.   A number of them cannot afford to pay the summer tuition fees for RISSE’s summer school, it is important for them to stay within their community and have structured activities. And to stay off the streets.

Many of their families are split up, working several jobs, or have no funds to pay the fees. Their community is their lifeblood, especially now. They need to learn in a safe place, and to be with each other.

This program is critical it provides educational instruction – English, math, art – as well as lunch, dinner,  recreational and other activities. It is essential to give these children a start on their journey to American life. Many of you have contributed to a number of different things this year, and my idea is that if a large number of people give small amounts, the pain will be lessened and shared.

it is my idea to do good rather than argue about what is good, and an Army of Good has arisen around this idea.

These children are beginning to experience the real America, the true America, a generous and loving country.

I am going to try to raise the money for these kids to attend summer school, the cost per child is $1,400 for the summer and we are trying to determine just how many are in need of tuition support.  Friday, I’m going to Albany in the afternoon to meet with some of them.

If you are so inclined, you can support the RISSE Summer Tuition Program, you can donate directly to RISSE using Paypal and major credit cards here.  You can also send the money to me at the Post Office Box or Paypal and I will forward it immediately to RISSE. Please mark your donations Summer Tuition. Thanks. The contributions are tax-deductible. I’ll offer as many details as I can about this campaign in the coming days. The only figure I don’t have yet is the total number of kids who need help. But I wanted to get started, this one is bigger than most and we only have a couple of weeks.

I don’t believe we can raise enough money to pay all of the tuition. RISSE officials tell me that no child will be turned away, they will be admitted to the summer program whether or not their tuition is paid, but that will drain the group’s resources. So I want to raise as much money as we can, without putting pressure on any of you out there.

A lot of small donations go a long way. You can donate to that program here. This is a good and deserving cause, RISSE has struggled for a long time to help people nobody else really wanted to help. It is a great thing to see the support you are already giving them, a long way from last year, when their building was burned to the ground by arsonists.

Blessings upon you.

If you are pressed financially, you can also send RISSE a message of support by donating $1 to them with a note thanking them for their good work and cheering them on. It is good for them to hear it. You can do it here.