KBI March Announcements

This month, we share first fundraising numbers from our Eighth Annual KBI Dinner, news of a recent Kino Teens trip to California and recent high school immersions, and a welcome to our new Education and Social Media Coordinator, Katie Sharar.

• Annual Phoenix Dinner: The Eighth Annual Kino Border Initiative Dinner on Saturday, March 3, 2017, was a tremendous success! An unprecedented 440 KBI supporters attended, contributing a preliminary total of $220,000 to our aid, education, and advocacy programs. We’ll share more details—including a final fundraising total and event highlights, such as the Pope Francis Award honoring Rev. William John Fitzgerald—in next month’s newsletter. Thanks to all who made the evening such a resounding confirmation and support of the KBI’s mission!

  

• The KBI on the Road: In mid-February, Director of Education and Advocacy Joanna Williams headed to the California Bay Area, accompanied by local Kino Teens Jesús Villalobos, Luís Enrique Delgado, and Gerardo Rubio (Graciously hosted by families from Ignatius College Preparatory, located in San Francisco) as well as Lourdes Catholic School teacher and chaperone Javier Barajas. For two days, students from St. Ignatius, Sacred Heart (in Atherton), Bellarmine College Preparatory, and Presentation High School (both in San Jose) gathered for presentations, round table discussions, and post-class events to share stories of migrants they had met in the comedor on earlier KBI immersion trips and reflect on Pope Francis’s four words of migrant advocacy— Welcome, Integrate, Promote, Protect—part of his Share the Journey initiative. Read more about Share the Journey here: https://www.sharejourney.org.
• New KBI Staff Member: Katie Sharar joins the KBI as the new Education and Social Media Coordinator. Katie earned her undergraduate degree in International Studies and Spanish from Macalester College in Minnesota in 2004, and her master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona (UA) in 2010. In addition to her formal studies, she has worked with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers at Annunciation House in El Paso and at Casa Marianella in Austin. Since moving back to Tucson in 2008, Katie has worked with undergraduate students at the Earlham College Border Studies Program and UA, as well as adult learners earning their GED through Pima Community College. She is delighted to be joining the KBI team to unite her passions of education, writing, and immigrant justice. ¡Bienvenida Katie!
• Immersion Experiences: In February, close to forty high school students participated in KBI immersions, encountering the border and hearing migrant stories firsthand.