#endzerotolerance

(Top Row from Left to Right: Han Pham ‘01, Jessica Palumbo ‘05, Michelle Lapointe ‘01, Shelly Anand ‘08, Yael Sherman ‘00, Anne Radford ‘98, Stephanie Buzzell ‘00. Bottom row from Left to Right: Sonya Khan ‘99, Shiveh (Reed) Roe ‘07)

We are a group of friends living in Decatur, Georgia. We have a few things in common- we all went to Wellesley, we are all mothers, and we are all feel physically ill over what is happening to immigrants in this country and especially immigrant families.

We were out for a rare happy hour together at the Imperial in Decatur after our kids’ bedtimes, which meant that it took a while for all of us to arrive. We talked about Sonya’s new job, and how she had negotiated like a boss. We talked about Shelly’s son’s upcoming birthday, which happens to be the same day as Yael’s birthday.

We didn’t want to talk about the news, but the horror of family separation exerted a gravitational pull upon our conversation. Those poor kids. Those poor parents. We imagined our children pulled away from us, calling for us, our cries for our children ignored. Yael said she felt like she was silently screaming all day-- screaming in horror and anger and pain.

Shelly said that we should do something about it. Have an event at the Imperial, right where we were. We asked to talk to the owner, and he was for it. We decided to have an educational event, to have speakers come and talk to us about what was happening and what we could do to help, and that we’d charge a ticket fee to raise money for Kids In Need of Defense-- KIND-- because they represent immigrant children.

We have to do something--we can’t stand by and let this happen to refugees fleeing violence and immigrants travelling for a better life. We can’t do this to kids and the parents who love them. However small our fundraiser is in the face of national policy, we are doing what we can to educate ourselves and our community, raise our voices, and support the people doing the work on the ground to help these children.

The fundraiser is August 23rd at the Imperial here in Decatur, Georgia. Our speakers include Christina Iturralde Thomas, the managing attorney of the Atlanta KIND Office, Michelle Lapointe (Wellesley ‘01!), Senior Supervising Attorney at the Immigrant Justice Project at Southern Poverty Law Center, and Arizbeth Sanchez, an undocumented student and activist working with Freedom University. The master of ceremonies is Brenda Lopez, Georgia’s first Latinx state rep.

So please. Join us. Be a part of this little piece of community working to keep families together and help reunite those who have been separated.