Two IWR supporters are organizing a Fall jewelry sale to benefit Ithaca Welcomes Refugees. The sale will take place on Saturday, November 30 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. in the community room at the First Baptist church of Ithaca. Jewelry donations are now being collected for the sale.

Below, please find a message from the organizers:

Greetings all, 

Please let us introduce ourselves, Yvonne Fogarty and Debbie Benzer. We are organizing a fundraising jewelry sale to take place November 30th, 2024 to benefit Ithaca Welcomes Refugees. 

All jewelry sold at the sale is gently used and donated by people like you. EVERYONE has jewelry they don’t wear anymore or inherited and never wore! What a wonderful way to pass it on to fund an organization that works so hard to help settle refugees into our community. 

If you or your friends have jewelry to donate,  this is an excellent time to get it cleaned and organized. 

We accept all items, such as necklaces, earrings, bracelets, hair pins and barrettes, rings, pins, tie pins, watches, ankle bracelets, cuff links, and anything I’ve forgotten! 

If you have the inclination… it is lovely to have the items separated by category in whatever containers you choose, ex: bags, small boxes etc. Necklaces can be tied with a twist tie, so they don’t get tangled. If you are donating items that are more valuable, PLEASE include a note alerting us to them so they can be priced accordingly. We work with jewelers to appraise them. We do have places that buy random pieces of gold or silver, ex: broken chains or only one earring from a pair. 

There are a number of ways for you to get jewelry to us so give one of us a call and we can figure out what works best for you. 

This is the 10th year we have organized jewelry sales to benefit local or national non-profit organizations. It is always a fun event. If you’d like to work with us, please let us know.

Any Questions? Please call Yvonne at 607 592-2799 or Debbie at 607 279-7174.

Thank you all in advance!!! 

Yvonne Fogarty and Debbie Benzer

Ithaca Welcomes Refugees is raising funds to help a refugee family seek justice for their father and husband, who was killed in a traffic accident last year.

In July 2023, we created a Crisis Fund to help people served by IWR in times of exceptional need. The decision to start this fund was made in response to the tragic passing of a man from Afghanistan, whom we had helped to resettle locally with his wife and four school-aged children just weeks earlier. The deceased, who was the sole income earner in his family, lost his life in a traffic accident in Ithaca. He had worked as a translator for the US military before fleeing Afghanistan with his family. As his family grieved, they also found themselves in an immediate crisis without an income or means to support themselves.

Thanks to the generosity of community members, we raised $72,470 for the Fund. As a result, we have been able to support the family over the past year with critical monthly expenses such as household bills, medical expenses and a travel loan repayment to the US government for the cost of the family’s flight to the US when they first arrived. The fund is enabling us to continue to support the family while they still need assistance. We are heartened to see how, despite such a challenging start to their new lives in the US, the children are rapidly learning English and have made friends through shared interests at school.

An update to the case now brings us to open a new public appeal for donations to the Crisis Fund. The authorities recently concluded their investigation, and found insufficient evidence to press charges against the driver of the vehicle that caused this tragedy. The family would like to pursue a civil case against the driver and are able to count on the support of a lawyer in the community who is representing them pro bono. However, an anticipated $5,000 is needed to pay for out-of-pocket costs to proceed with the case, including fees for subpoenas and depositions. We are asking community members to help us raise this sum to cover the family’s legal fees and pursue the compensation and closure that will help them move on. If you can help, please donate here or send a check to Ithaca Welcomes Refugees at 315 N. Cayuga St., Ithaca, N.Y., 14850 and note ‘Crisis Fund’ in the memo.

In creating the Crisis Fund last year, we recognized that while this family’s predicament was exceptional, there are likely to be future occasions when unforeseeable events land community members already coping with adjusting to a new country in a situation of special need, beyond what can be covered by our existing programs.  

Only three months after we launched the fund, we were saddened by news of a second tragedy in the IWR community. A man we had helped after he migrated alone to Ithaca from Iraq unexpectedly died of natural causes. To honor his memory and give closure to the family he left behind, we drew on the Crisis Fund to transport his remains to them in Iraq.

“You could make the case that every family and individual IWR works with is in crisis, otherwise they would not have had to leave their home behind,” said Casey Verderosa, IWR’s executive director. “Our Crisis Fund is a crucial support when additional tragedies or emergencies befall our new neighbors, allowing IWR to provide meaningful aid without delay.”

A year after its successful launch, we remain grateful to those who generously contributed to the Crisis Fund. As we all deal with uncertainties in our lives, we reflect on the importance of being able to be there for some of the most vulnerable in our community when the worst adversities do arise.