Anne sends along this announcement…

This year the Fugees Family will hold their 6th annual Summer Showcase at Agnes Scott College.

The Fugees are excited to perform scenes from the hit musical, Annie. Additionally, students will showcase stop animation videos and documentary film clips that they created during their technology classes.

Please come, bring a friend and  reserve your spot for Thursday.

Thursday, July 17: 1:30 and 6:30 p.m.
Agnes Scott College, Winter Theatre in the Dana Fine Arts Building

* Fugees Family, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to working with child survivors of war. Since 2004, the Fugees has evolved into a group of programs focusing on the various needs of refugee youth. These programs include a private school – the Fugees Academy, a summer academic enrichment camp, after school tutoring and soccer, an Elementary after-school program, academic case management for all students.

Hailey writes in this note to DM…

Y’all have been so supportive of Fugees Family in the past, we’re hoping we can get you involved in our Valentine’s Day project too! A post of any kind about the project would be hugely helpful.

As you know, we’ve work with refugee students in Clarkston, GA for the past seven years. Each year we add more and more students to our programs, and in turn, each year transportation becomes more and more of an issue. During the summer, we equip kids with bikes and ride into Decatur. During the school year, students use bikes and walk as much as possible. But at night, after soccer practice and tutoring, it just isn’t safe for us to send them walking home. So, for the past few years, we have been shuttling them home in our 14 passenger bus. This year we have 136 Fugees and it takes a staff member almost two hours to run the shuttle to get all the students home.

For Valentine’s Day, we’re asking supporters to show the Fugees some love by donating $100 toward helping us get a new bus! Each of the 500 generous donors that make this project possible will have their name printed on the back of the bus as a thank you, as well as to remind the Fugees of all the people who support them in achieving their dreams.

Below is the email that Luma sent to our supporters, please feel free to use any or all of the information.

Decatur City Commissioner and Bicycle South owner Fred Boykin writes in…

The Fugees Family out in Clarkston (http://www.fugeesfamily.org/) is holding their summer academic boot camp at Agnes Scott through July 16th. Every weekday 70 plus kids will be cycling from Clarkston to Decatur and back – usually around 9 am and 2:30 pm. Bicycle South helped get their bikes ready and we “recycled” a number of bikes for them – donated to us from Decatur residents. This is the fourth year of the camp and since the Fugees Family has no storage space they have to gather bikes together each year in time for the start. I’ll put out an alert to the community next spring for any bike donations as we’re going to keep helping them with this program. The Fugees Family is a great organization working to help out the many refugee children who’ve settled in Clarkston. It’s a great story and folks should check out their web site for more information.

Please note: Bicycle South is a DM Sponsor

Ellen writes in…

Back in April 2009, you graciously dedicated a post to Fugees Family needing bicycles. Would you be so kind as to post now about the Chase Community Giving challenge? On July 13, Chase Bank is giving away $5 million to the 200 charities that get the most votes on Facebook. Fugees Family is currently in the top 200, but we need people to keep voting if we want to stay there.

To vote: Go to http://tiny.cc/fugees250k

Click “get started” /Click “allow” /Click “like” /Click “close” / Click “vote now”

Tom’s post over at the Decatur Book Festival blog, reminds me that Daren sent me this announcement a few weeks back and I never posted.

Thanks to writer Warren St. John, the Fugees soccer team of Clarkston, GA has enjoyed a more than a brief moment on the national stage in the past couple years, which started with a front page NY Times story and was follow by a book (which, thanks to Daren, I received an advanced copy of).  There is even talk of a movie being made about Clarkston’s refugee soccer team and their chance creation by Decatur’s Luma Mufleh.

However, like all things that attract national attention, fame and support can be powerful, but also fleeting.  And when all is said and done, at the end of the day, it is local support that will make or break great organizations such as these.

With that in mind, here is the original note sent from “Fugees Family” member Allison Schafer, followed by a piece of Tom’s post, which serves as an update.

This summer Fugees Family will be having a 6-week Summer Literacy Camp at Agnes Scott College. We are looking to obtain close to 60 bikes in good condition for all of our older kids to ride to camp each day.

We are looking for bikes, mostly adult sizes but all the way down to what would fit your average 12 year-old. They should have working brakes, chains, seats, tires, etc.

We can provide a receipt of donation for anyone who wants one.

Please check your garages and check with your friends and e-mail if you have any bikes to contribute. We can pick up bikes from wherever they are.

Thanks for your help!

Tom’s update provides a bit more recent detail…

They’ll be riding from Clarkston to Decatur every morning this summer to attend summer enrichment classes, and riding back at the end of each day to go to soccer practice. They’ve had about 30 bikes donated, but they need many more.

Do you have a bike in good condition that you’d like to donate? Or would you like to volunteer to fix up the bikes they have? Do you own a bike shop and maybe would like to donate some tires and inner tubes? See below for details from the Fugees on how to help…