Armchair Travel
Friday, January 22, 2010
  The Goodrich Foundation

I heard a very moving presentation last night at Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield: Sally and Donald Goodrich, founders of the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation, shown here with scholarship students from Afghanistan.

Sally and Donald lost their son Peter on September 11, 2001. He was on flight 175, the second plane to strike the World Trade Center. Among many other things, Peter was a student of world religion who had a copy of the Qu'ran filled with page markers. To honor his memory, they established the foundation to help the people of Afghanistan.

The foundation raised more than $400,000 to build a school for girls in Logar Province and has also provided funds for a well and a reservoir in Kunar Province, and for scholarships for Afghan students to study abroad.

They also provided help to earthquake victims in Nangahar, and they support an orphanage in Wardak, providing a flock of sheep, arable land, a school and a health clinic to support these young victims of the conflict.

The Foundation's website has a wealth of information about these projects.

"In both Afghanistan and the United States," they write, "our hope is to contribute to a new generation of citizens and leaders capable of devising solutions to complex problems."

Both Sally and Donald described how these efforts, and the bonds they have formed with the Afghan people, have helped them to overcome their grief at the loss of their son.

The talk was part of the Miriam Emerson Peters Speaker Series in Global Awareness.
 
Comments:
What a beautiful story of an a family refusing to let fear mongering turn them into themselves. Bravo to them for honoring their son in this way!
 
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Literary gadfly Stephen Hartshorne writes about books that he finds at flea markets and rummage sales.

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Stephen Hartshorne worked in newspapers and magazines around New England for many years and served as Information Officer in the New Hampshire Senate under Senate President Vesta Roy. He worked as a material handler for nine years at the Yankee Candle Company until the company was taken over by corporate weasels. He is currently the associate editor of GoNOMAD.com, an alternative travel website, which gives him the opportunity to correspond with writers and photographers all over the world. He lives in Sunderland, Massachusetts, with his daughter Sarah, a student at Drew University, and their cat, Dwight D. Eisenmeower. This blog is dedicated to his mom, who made him bookish.

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