Chicago Legal Response Network
Donation protected
Update 5/8/17:
The meal delivery portion of this project has been discontinued at the request of the lawyers group, due primarily to decreased staffing. We will continue to raise money for this group and its work, however.
The lawyers group has now formally organized "and rebranded into an entity called Chicago Legal Responders Network (CLRN), and is devoted not just to the airport but to using our list of volunteers to respond to whatever other legal crises arise. Toward that end, CLRN last month hosted the Mobilization Summit on immigration issues, and hopes to host additional Mobilization Summits for topics in the future," said Jamie Friedland, our main liasion in the group.
So in addition to continued pro bono legal services and activism for any and all marginalized groups, the CLRN will be training more attorneys to do similar work in other communities. As such, all donated funds will be used by the CLRN for their continued work on advocating and fighting for people targeted by this administration's policies and laws.
We will be updating the page's title, link, and descriptive information to reflect this change in the lawyer group's name.
Original post:
Since January 27, the International Terminal of O'Hare Airport in Chicago has been staffed non-stop by a team of attorneys, interpreters, and advocates working pro bono in 6-hour shifts for18 hours a day. They went to the airport to protest and to help immediately after the first "Executive Order" (aka Muslim Ban) was signed and they have never left.
They are called "ORD Lawyers" and their hashtag is #extraORDinary Love. Some are immigration attorneys, but many aren't. Some have experience working with refugees, but many don't. All of them, however, need to eat.
That's where we come in.
Since early February, our Sign Up page was filled with volunteers who have provided three meals a day, seven days a week just about every day. They bring food they've purchased from local businesses. They bring homecooked meals filled with love. They deliver with signs and cards and messages and thanks. The response has been nothing short of amazing.
Some of us don't drive. Or we don't live anywhere near O'Hare. But we really, really want to help. Sooooo. . . we started taking donations. The money has been used to purchase meals or reimburse the members of the crew for meals they purchase during shifts when no one has signed up to bring or deliver a meal.
As of early April, we'd raised over $2000, all sent via PayPal, etc. in a very grassroots, person-to-person manner. The level of trust involved in sending money to a complete stranger via PayPal is pretty high. Just goes to show you how good people are, right?
We are starting a GoFundMe page for several reasons:
1) It gives the process more transparency and gives people a trusted site to donate to.
2) It gives us what we hope is a much bigger reach in terms of spreading the word on social media and encouraging people to donate.
3) It will allow the shift supervisor(s) of the ORD crew to have access to the funds when they need them.
4) We would like to raise even more money!
Even though Executive Order #1 is still hanging out in the court system along with Executive Order #2, and as such are neither are officially "in effect," the ORD crew is still there every day because people are still being affected by this administration's anti-immigrant & anti-refugee policies every day. Most of what they are helping with currently involves the treatment of people of color by the Customs and Border Patrol agents. Specifically people are being held/detained and questioned for longer than reasonable or justifiable periods of time.
Please consider making a donation (any amount helps!) to feed these heroes and train more heroes. They are doing this for no pay, for a long time now, simply because they are good people who are passionate about social justice and helping others. Let's feed them, shall we? #foodislove
Thank you in advance. We are all the #resistance, folks. Keep fighting the good fight!
In Peace and Solidarity,
Shannon, Kamal, and Jamie
The meal delivery portion of this project has been discontinued at the request of the lawyers group, due primarily to decreased staffing. We will continue to raise money for this group and its work, however.
The lawyers group has now formally organized "and rebranded into an entity called Chicago Legal Responders Network (CLRN), and is devoted not just to the airport but to using our list of volunteers to respond to whatever other legal crises arise. Toward that end, CLRN last month hosted the Mobilization Summit on immigration issues, and hopes to host additional Mobilization Summits for topics in the future," said Jamie Friedland, our main liasion in the group.
So in addition to continued pro bono legal services and activism for any and all marginalized groups, the CLRN will be training more attorneys to do similar work in other communities. As such, all donated funds will be used by the CLRN for their continued work on advocating and fighting for people targeted by this administration's policies and laws.
We will be updating the page's title, link, and descriptive information to reflect this change in the lawyer group's name.
Original post:
Since January 27, the International Terminal of O'Hare Airport in Chicago has been staffed non-stop by a team of attorneys, interpreters, and advocates working pro bono in 6-hour shifts for18 hours a day. They went to the airport to protest and to help immediately after the first "Executive Order" (aka Muslim Ban) was signed and they have never left.
They are called "ORD Lawyers" and their hashtag is #extraORDinary Love. Some are immigration attorneys, but many aren't. Some have experience working with refugees, but many don't. All of them, however, need to eat.
That's where we come in.
Since early February, our Sign Up page was filled with volunteers who have provided three meals a day, seven days a week just about every day. They bring food they've purchased from local businesses. They bring homecooked meals filled with love. They deliver with signs and cards and messages and thanks. The response has been nothing short of amazing.
Some of us don't drive. Or we don't live anywhere near O'Hare. But we really, really want to help. Sooooo. . . we started taking donations. The money has been used to purchase meals or reimburse the members of the crew for meals they purchase during shifts when no one has signed up to bring or deliver a meal.
As of early April, we'd raised over $2000, all sent via PayPal, etc. in a very grassroots, person-to-person manner. The level of trust involved in sending money to a complete stranger via PayPal is pretty high. Just goes to show you how good people are, right?
We are starting a GoFundMe page for several reasons:
1) It gives the process more transparency and gives people a trusted site to donate to.
2) It gives us what we hope is a much bigger reach in terms of spreading the word on social media and encouraging people to donate.
3) It will allow the shift supervisor(s) of the ORD crew to have access to the funds when they need them.
4) We would like to raise even more money!
Even though Executive Order #1 is still hanging out in the court system along with Executive Order #2, and as such are neither are officially "in effect," the ORD crew is still there every day because people are still being affected by this administration's anti-immigrant & anti-refugee policies every day. Most of what they are helping with currently involves the treatment of people of color by the Customs and Border Patrol agents. Specifically people are being held/detained and questioned for longer than reasonable or justifiable periods of time.
Please consider making a donation (any amount helps!) to feed these heroes and train more heroes. They are doing this for no pay, for a long time now, simply because they are good people who are passionate about social justice and helping others. Let's feed them, shall we? #foodislove
Thank you in advance. We are all the #resistance, folks. Keep fighting the good fight!
In Peace and Solidarity,
Shannon, Kamal, and Jamie
Organizer and beneficiary
Shannon Benaitis
Organizer
Darien, IL
Sufyan Sohel
Beneficiary
