Fort McCoy

Cathy and I have headed to Tomah Wisconsin. Many people think of Tomah as the Paris of the Midwest. Well, not many people think of it as the Paris of the Midwest but some do.  OK, nobody really thinks of it as the Paris of the Midwest but it is a pretty area of the state.

  

We are volunteering through the diocese to help with the Afghan refugees who are staying at Fort McCoy.  There are between 12,000 and 13,000 Afghans currently at Fort McCoy, over half of them are children.  Our assignment will be to work at the recreation centers taking care of the children while the parents are occupied elsewhere with legal matters and travel plans.

What we have learned so far is that Wisconsin will be accepting almost 400 refugees. Currently, the Green Bay diocese has welcomed 23.

While we are here we are staying at a rental home with three other volunteers. The home is being paid for by the USCCB.

 

We hope to update this blog during the next week or two. We probably will not be sharing it on social media. They are some people who don’t like the fact that the Afghans are here, some feel they have “jumped the line” as far as immigration is concerned.  Some people just don’t care and others may feel that we are grandstanding by keeping this blog.  After all, many people do much more than us on an everyday basis in our community. We will be sending out notices when this blog is updated to the people we think might be sincerely interested in what’s going on here. Until then, Salam Alaikum.

Ken and Cathy