In Celebration of Refugees

I had the incredibly positive opportunity over the last ten years to offer job counseling to a wide range of refugees via the Department of Workforce Services. I was doubly fortunate to have worked alongside some exceptional refugee coworkers. 

Each one of them was 100% dedicated to providing caring, informed, diligent service to everyone who walked through the doors. Further, as a group, they were unfailingly positive, respectful, hard-working caring employees. They also were quick to offer their friendship, their humor. Now that I have retired, I miss a lot of my previous coworkers, but especially those wonderful refugees.

Those people fled their homelands out of necessity, some literally to save themselves and their families' lives. They came to America not to take advantage of a system. Not to tear down anything. They came to contribute and to provide for their families. To find security, peace, prosperity. A new home.

The lessons I learned through their stories and their examples are impossible for me to place a value on. I am so much a better person for having had them in my life.

The very same can be said for the newer refugees that I assisted with their job search. New to this country, they were still learning our laws, ethics, manners, our way of life here. And for most, English. They faced an enormous uphill battle. And all of them wanted one thing - to work.

Some had been proud, highly-educated professionals in their own country. Here, their degrees and certifications invalid, they found themselves needing to accept much more menial work. As long as it was steady work, they were thankful. And they were all willing to work hard to earn the opportunity they were given. To provide a future for their families. I loved serving them.

So this long post is in tribute to them. I shot the images over the course of three years at the annual World Refugee Day Celebration in the park. The first images were of the naturalization ceremonies for new citizenship for those who had studied and earned it. That ceremony kicked off the celebrations each year. 

After we get more of a handle on the COVID pandemic, I hope that that celebration can be renewed. I will certainly be there, reconnecting with old, dear friends and hopefully making new ones. I miss their warmth, their generosity of spirit, their good humor. I miss THEM. We are so lucky to have them in our midst. So, until we meet again, this is my "love letter" to those wonderful people.