Immigration Talk, then Road Cleanup

 

Some of our cleanup crew (minus Brian Farrell, who may have taken the photo) on Dunning Street after last Thursday's meeting. They are, left to right, Chris Havens, Donna Kripfgans-Rawlin, Miles Cornthwaite, Murray Eitzmann and Steve (last name to be inserted here when discovered).

At the meeting, Phil Kellerman spoke about immigration. He has been an advocate for migrant farmworkers and other immigrants for over 35 years. He established the Harvest of Hope Foundation which raised and distributed more than $1.1 million in emergency and educational financial aid to migrant farmworkers. Prior to retirement his last employment was with the Oley Foundation under Albany Medical Center, helping children and adults in need of tube feeding supplies due to serious intestinal problems, oral cancer, stroke or ALS.  He continues to collect tube feeding supplies to send to California to be shipped to the Philippines. In addition, Kellerman helped to establish the Foundation for Language Education and Development (LEAD) which provides financial aid to immigrant students to attend college.

Kellerman. a member of the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club, 

said he became involved in the case of Delphine Sosu, an immigrant from Ghana who aspires to become a professional soccer player. Her education was disrupted when the College of Saint Rose in Albany closed, but she now attends Newman University in Kansas.

He said immigrants pay many fees to the government and other expenses, which can make it hard to live here. Among the most urgent fixes to current law he recommended is regularizing the legal status of "dreamers", longstanding US residents who were brought here illegally as children.