Feverish event for Refugees in Phoenix

A night for dancin' fools, refugees from the late 70's and those who just love how the Welcome to America Project and its scores of volunteers makes a difference for newly-arrived refugees from all over the world, is approaching faster than disco fell out of style at the end of the 70's.

Every Saturday, WTAP welcomes another three families to our country, providing them with some decent furniture and much needed household goods and making them feel welcome in their new country.

Imagine giving up everything and making sometimes harrowing treks across inhospitable deserts in west Africa or swamp and jungle in southeast Asia only to find yourself spending years in limbo in crowded squalid camps, not knowing what's next. I can't imagine it and I have seen some of these places with my own eyes.

Finally you have the opportunity to immigrate to America, a place so different from your own that you have to learn not only how to get around and how to prepare meals with modern technology (a stove), but how to communicate so that you can find a job to pay the rent and feed your family. Imagine having to figure out how to function in a culture so far and away different that up is down and down is up. You don't even know where to begin.

WTAP partners with the resettlement agency International Rescue Committee, to soften the blow of such life-altering changes and make people feel welcome. They help with some of the basic needs so that the refugees can focus their energies on other important things like finding a job and learning English.

On Feb 20, you can relive your youth, dress silly (although it wasn't silly back then), act silly if you like, an have a great time while helping WTAP continue to fulfill their important mission by attending the annual WTAP Prom fundraiser. The Saturday Night Fever-themed event runs 6:30-10 p.m. at the banquet hall at St. Patrick Church 10815 N. 84th Street in Scottsdale.

As usual I'll be stepping out of my usual role as a documentary photojournalist to set up the traditional Prom portrait studio. For more information on this cool fundraiser please go to WTAP's site. 

                          Hope to see you there!

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