#FamiliesBelongTogether Fundraiser

APW Happy Hour

Hey APW,

It’s been an awful week. As a human, and as a Mother of small children, what has happened, and is happening at the border, has broken my heart to absolute smithereens. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen me work through the news, moment by moment this week (and if you don’t, you can see it all in my story Highlights, or lowlights, or whatever I can call them these days). Children being ripped away from their parents, in one case while breastfeeding, in many other cases under the pretense of giving them a bath, with parents not even having a chance to say goodbye. And as the mother of Jewish children, I have felt a particular kind of responsibility watching this atrocity unfold—because 70 years ago, it would have been my children, and it would have been me. What is happening is a human rights disaster, and something that not one of us can be silent about. While Wednesday’s Executive Order looked flashy on the surface, it does not allow for reunification of nearly 2,400 traumatized and heartbroken children with their families, and is supposed to pave the way for longer term (and currently illegal) detention of entire families. This administration was willing to destroy the lives of children to make the atrocious thing that they wanted look palatable, because we were so desperate to stop hearing children screaming, “Mami, Papi,” like it was the only words they knew.

And while nothing we can do, or have done, has felt like enough, in a moment of tears at lunch this week, we decided to team up with our local Oakland favorite Sequoia Diner to host a fundraiser next Friday, June 29th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Oakland, and if you’re in the bay area we’d love to have you join us. We’ll be running a phone bank to call our representatives, writing letters to comfort children, and collecting teddy bears or any sort of stuffies to send to these children who have nobody to hold, and nobody to hold them. We will also have wine, snacks, and a raffle. If you can’t make the event, you can donate on the Eventbrite page at anytime.

The Details

When: Friday, June 29th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Where: Sequoia Diner, 3719 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, California 94619

RSVP: Tickets are limited! Head over to the Eventbrite page here, and sign up for the 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. session or the 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. session.

Ticket Price: $50

Other Ways to Help

Donate: Beyond donating to our Eventbrite page, you can also donate directly to RAICES, ACLU, and ActBlue.

Protest: Attend an event on June 30th. To find your local event, go to Families Belong Together and enter your zip code. If you want to protest at the border in Texas with the ACLU in Brownsville, Texas, on June 28th, go here for more details.

Learn about the bills: Current bills you should know about are The Keeping Families Together Act, Fair Day in Court For Kids Act, and The Help Children Separated Act.

Call your representatives: Find out who your local representative is by clicking here and entering your zip code. If you need a sample script, this is all you have to say: “I’m a constituent from [City, State], and I’m calling to ask you to speak up about the separation of families at the U.S. borders and support [one of the bills listed above].”

XO,

Meg

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