Soccer team and refugee news: On Monday, the soccer team will head for Ramblewild, a team and confidence building forest experience in the Berkshires. I hope to join them for lunch. We have all the funds we need for the trip and thanks.

We are in day two of fund-raising for the Soccer Team’s Back To School Fund, we are raising money to buy school supplies, shoes, pants and shirts for five members of the team who are entering American high school for the first time.

As Ali recalls from his own experience in high school, clothes matter much  more to Americans than to the soccer players, but they are singled out quickly if they are wearing used or outdated clothes.

We are looking to raise about $700 to buy these five children what they need to cross the threshold of high school in comfort and some personal style.

It’s not about fashion, it’s about fitting in.

Their parents – most have single parents – work in the only minimum wage jobs that are available to new refugees, most of whom don’t speak much if any English, at least for now. They work as many hours as they can at  Wal-Mart, grocery store chains, and hotel and office cleaning jobs.

They just have no extra money, after rent and food.

They get their clothes for their children from Goodwill and church collection boxes. We’d like to do better, especially for high school. We only need about $400 more dollars to complete the fund, which I hope will be a regular event for the Army Of Good.

Some of you contributed yesterday, and thanks. I  hope to raise the rest today, school is only a week or so away. If you can and wish to contribute, you can send your donation to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz. P.O. Box 205 Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

And thanks. Small acts of great kindness. It will make a big difference to them. I’m excited about Ramblewild, I think it will be a great experience for them. Some have never been as far from Albany as the Berkshires (only an hour away.)