Please consider helping the Mansion/Refugee Fund if you can, There is currently $404 in the fund, which is used to help the residents of the Mansion, a Medicaid facility for the elderly in Cambridge, N.Y., and the refugee children and their families in Albany.

This work has been ongoing in  Bishop Maginn High School for several years and has done so much for the students and their families.

We’ve paid tuition for a score of refugee students, helped eight go to private schools on full scholarship, and helped with nutrition and clothes and laptops and Covid safety equipment and signs.

Bishop Maginn has closed, and the refugee program is moving to Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons in Schenectady, N.Y., just outside Albany. Maria and I and Zinnia and Sue Silverstein are going with it.

The work continues, and the need is greater than ever.

In addition to the families we have been helping, there are new arrivals from Ukraine and Afghanistan. Some of them desperately need our small acts of great kindness – shoes and clothes for the cold weather, food assistance, blankets and dishes, and some school supplies.

We’ve had a good year, even though these difficulties. We helped a Ukrainian family get out of Poland and to America. We’ve helped Mansion residents get the sneakers and toiletries they urgently need, and we’ve supported the new Activities Room in many ways.

Thanks to the Army of Good, the Mansion residents have toothpaste, deodorant and anti-bacterial soap.

(You can contribute to the Army Of Good in several ways. Via Paypal, [email protected], or via Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13, or by check, Jon Katz, Mansion/Refugee Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Thanks for considering it. Small contributions are welcome as are bigger ones.)

Soon, I’ll post an Amazon Bishop Gibbons Wish List so Sue Silverstein can get the art supplies she needs for the refugee students in the new school. That has been essential in these children’s education, creative development, and confidence.

Sue is a magician and a saint, deserving of all the support we can reasonably provide. She has helped saved and nourished so many lives.

I wish we could do more, but we do what we can, and it matters. The Army Of Good is the best idea I’ve had in my lifetime; I won’t ever walk away from it.

I hope you can help, I understand if you can’t.

I understand the changes in the economy, and believe it or not, I feel them also, but I will do everything I can to make good choices, keep our costs down, and give help to the needy and the vulnerable, as we have been doing.

I am not a Christian but a long-time follower of Jesus Christ and his call to help the poor and the refugee. Help if you can. I photograph and document every purchase so you can see where your support is going.

Many blessings to you for the support you have given. It is so much better to do good than to argue about what good is.