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As a first post to the Beautiful Day Blog, I’d like to recount my interview with a current member of the granola staff, Gervais. I met him one day at the Amos House kitchen where the granola is made, with the hope of getting to know him a little better. In no time at all, I had his eldest son Jerome on the phone, and had set up a meeting at his family’s home in Providence two days hence. Yikes! With no clue about how to conduct such a sensitive interview about a refugee’s life history, I set out for his house with shaking hands and very little confidence.

Dear friend, Beautiful Bar wrapper This past Tuesday we sent an appeal letter to our donors and customers seeking support for a spring appeal, with a goal of $25,000. Almost half of the goal has already been pledged by 15 supporters as matching gifts.Included in every envelope was a Beautiful Bar wrapper--yes, we mailed out hundreds of them. We hope you got one. We've included an image here to serve as focal point for your reading. The following is the letter. We hope if you feel compelled, you will participate in our spring appeal.Dear friend,Yes, we’re actually sending you an...

In 1991, when I first joined a refugee resettlement agency as a case manager, I was assigned to this family. They are Roma people from Romania, commonly referred to as “Gypsies.” In resettlement parlance at the time, they’d come to be referred to as “The Miserables.”

She worked with her mom in the family’s successful import-export business, travelling to China to purchase women’s apparel, a 1500-mile round trip, and then crossing back through Burma to sell her wares in India, another 500 miles. To earn enough commission, she made the trip 4 times a year, for three months at a time. Of those travels, she said the most dangerous part was crossing through her neighboring Chin state, where there was fighting between the government and Chin rebels. “The rebels had to fight the government, but it was hard to have a normal life.”

He has olive skin, jet black hair and speaks the same language as the people who carried out the 9/11 attacks.  He is Muslim and his wife wears a scarf that covers all but her face.  He is from a country that most Americans view as an enemy and he now lives in the US.

When he was young, he received an advanced degree and looked forward to a successful career.  He got married and started a family.  And then one day everything started to change.  War had broken out across his homeland.

There were times this year when I wondered if I was a bit nuts.  Not exactly opera-in-the-jungle Fitzcarraldo nuts—but as close as I’d been in a while.  I was sending my second kid off to private college.  At the same time, I was deferring nearly every other paycheck just to keep a non-profit afloat. 

I figured if I were nuts, I must be in good company.   My board of directors—an amazingly accomplished, committed, fun, and generous group of people—must be nuts too.  And the customers buying nearly 100K worth of granola.  Not to mention the grass roots support—individual donors like you—who were giving so generously.