For Xmas, I sent one of my sons the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I’d seen Beah on The Daily Show a while ago so when I saw the book at Monkey See Monkey Reads while doing my xmas shopping on xmas eve eve, I bought it.
I had already read Bonnie Obremski’s RepJ article a month earlier (Nationwide project soliciting participation from Northfield youth) describing War Kids Relief, a project being run by Northfield/Dennison-based Children’s Culture Connection (CCC). And I’d seen all the photos of the Iraqi kids on the walls of the Hideaway Coffeehouse and Winebar.
But I never mentally made the connection between the child soldiering of Beah’s book and CCC’s War Kids Relief project until I attended a fundraiser for the project at College City Beverage’s cool new conference room (above right) at their new HQ in Dundas on Friday night.
That’s where I heard presentations by (center) Iraqi war veteran Gunnar Swanson and Charles London, author of One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War, who both now work with War Kids Relief.
Swanson (related to many Northfield-area Swansons) and London appeared on The Wayne Eddy Affair radio show on Friday morning on KYMN 1080. New owner Jeff Johnson gave me permission to put up the audio here. (Full disclosure: KYMN is a client of mine.)
Click play to listen. 2 hrs, 21 min.
[...] when I saw both Lynette Lamb and Jessica Paxton (former Utne-ites) at last Friday night’s War Kids Relief fundraiser (Lynette’s on the CCC board), I had to get between them for a photo. Smearing cream cheese on the [...]
[...] first met Gunnar Swanson and Dina Fesler of War Kids Relief back in January when they made a presentation at College City Beverage in Dundas. We later hosted them on our Locally Grown podcast/radio [...]