🌍 "Longfellow Welcomers" sponsor three refugee families through federal program

Last month, Eva Zewdie posted a time-sensitive offer to the Longfellow Social Facebook group: 

I'm looking for 6-8 neighbors to form a group with me IN THE NEXT WEEK to sponsor a refugee family. 

A sponsorship application submitted by the end of next week is the best chance at a family being authorized to travel before the inauguration. See comments for why timing is critical. 

The photo is some of my group members and the family we welcomed July 19th: A mom and her kids (ages 13, 11 and 6). 

It's a daunting responsibility to help a family navigate every part of American life. They are amazing people though, and helping them get here and find their way may be one of the most impactful things I'll do in my lifetime.

She knew it was a long shot. In the comments section she detailed the level of commitment required to take part in the Welcome Corps, a federal government program that connects refugee families to groups of citizens willing to sponsor them and help them get established in their new country. Basically, the request was asking strangers to commit to months of regular meetings, online classes, chores, paperwork, and fundraising. In partnership with people they'd probably never met, for the benefit of a family they knew nothing about, and with just a few days to consider. She hoped she could maybe find a half-dozen people daring enough to take her up on it. 

But by the end of the day, the challenge was no longer finding enough people to fill a group. It was figuring out what to do with the amount of interest that came flooding in.