I planned on taking it easy this week in order to replenish the depleted Gus Fund, which supports our work with the Mansion Residents, the refugees in need, and Ali’s soccer team, the Albany Warriors.

Thanks for your responses, so far I have received about $800 in contributions, plus $500 to help pay for the soccer team’s upcoming trip to the Great Escape Adventure Park towards the end of August (Thanks Liz, you are an angel).

I also scrambled a bit to order a new lightweight wheelchair scale for the Mansion, they said it wasn’t urgent, but I think it was. The current wheel chair scale is quite old and rickety, and is very difficult for the staff to use.

Some of the Mansion residents can’t stand up to walk on a scale, they have to get their chair on a wheel chair scale, the existing one is small and damaged, it demands a lot of labor from the staff. I did an unusual amount of online trawling for me – the one we needed was listed on one website as costing $800, but I found it on Amazon for half of that amount.

So it’s on the way, coming to the Mansion in three weeks. The new tablecloths are appearing in the dining room, (bought by you on their Amazon Wish List). Everyone who needs an air conditioner has an air conditioner, the culmination of a two-year Army Of Good project.

The residents look at these for hours every day, they have really brightened their meal time.

So my Gus Fund is slowly coming back to life but still not quite where I need it to be in order to move forward, I want to get it between $2,000 and $3,000. We are getting there. i’m postponing refugee visits until I know I can support them, even in a limited way. In our universe, this takes a little time. We have big hearts in the Army Of Good and small wallets, which is one of the most wonderful things about all of you.

The small donations are just as important as the big ones, it touches my heart to see those $5 and $10 bills from all over the country. Talk about grass roots.

And the other good news is that our soccer team is going to Great escape and the Mansion residents are getting a modern wheelchair scale.  Also that Sifa has moved out of her drug-infested neighborhood and into a nice apartment, Lisa and her boys fresh food and new clothes, Hawah loves her new apartment and Said is comfortably settled with books, a TV and a smartphone that lets him talk to his children in Iraq every day.

Life is good. I could use a little more help to get rolling again, small donations are really what we are about. You can contribute two days: by sending a check to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

I hate to ask for money, but going good is a gift to me, and I see, and to many of you, one of the richest experiences of my life. And I am just  getting started. We do our work in a small and measured way, and it counts for a lot. I wish you could see the gratitude and joy in the faces of the people we help, thanks to  you.