JESSICA MALABANAN of the Tao of Touch massages a client in Lake Oswego’s Millenium Park Aug. 28

DEBORAH MOON, The Jewish Review

Never Again Coalition helps Darfur, Congo refugees

By DEBORAH MOON, The Jewish Review

article created on: 2011-09-15T00:00:00

“Getting pampered while saving lives feels good,” said Jewish World Watch synagogue resource director Mina Rush, as she looked out at people enjoying Pamper for a Purpose in Millenium Park in Lake Oswego. “I think this is a model other people could use to raise money and awareness” to combat genocide and atrocities around the world.

“People want to help, but they often ask themselves, what can I give up?”

Rush said at the Aug. 28 event organized by Never Again Coalition member Denise Wetherell to raise funds for JWW projects aiding Darfur and Congolese refugees. “But it’s not about lowering our standards, it’s about raising theirs.”

“Standing idly by was not the theme on Sunday,” Pamper for a Purpose organizer Denise Wetherell wrote to participants after the event. “All of us poured our hearts, time and energy as the day unfolded into something great!

I loved all the great feedback to improve the flow for next year. In four months this event went from a small idea to a big one. We raised nearly $3,000 net over three hours!”

The day included music by two bands, pampering services by 30 volunteers, talks by Rush, two members of Portland’s Congolese community, a poem “At 13,” read alternately by a teenager who arrived in Portland two years ago from a refugee camp in the Congo and 13-year-old Anna Wetherell, who inspired her mother to create the event and who, for her bat mitzvah project, made and hair accessories to benefit JWW.

“Pamper for a Purpose, Denise’s brainchild, was a monumental event that could have easily taken an organization with a full, dedicated staff a year to pull off. Denise did it in four months,” said Rush. “Denise rallied everyone in her professional network to donate “pampering” services—anything from manicures, massages, haircuts to reflexology.

Then everyone came together for a day at the park, where other people paid $20 in exchange for those services.

“Two of the most rockin’ bands I’ve heard in a while also donated their time to play during the event. In fact, many of the hundreds of people attending the event at first had no idea what was going on in beautiful Millennium Park that day. They just heard the rock and roll and came to check it out. Then they stayed for a pampering treatment and to learn more about what they could do for the people of Sudan and Congo.”

Some of those providing the pampering said they also got a lot out of the event.

“It’s the least we could do,” said Cindy Brehl of Trusted Hands Massage. “I was 14 the first time I went to a third world country and it affected me very much. To take a small amount of time to do this feels so good.”

Jorge Kuri, also from Trusted Hands, added, “With all the technology and telecommunications, there is no excuse for the world to let anything like this happen. We must raise awareness so people stop looking the other way.”

“We all have daughters and we feel fortunate they are growing up in a country where they don’t have to deal with that,” said Rebecca Lo Guidice of Linn City Chiropractic.

Wetherell said she plans to revamp the event for next year, incorporating improvements from what she learned worked well this year. She agreed with Rush that others could use her idea for fundraising.

“I don’t see why not,” she said. “You’re not running or walking—you’re getting pampered.”

Yet one volunteer, Ruby Johnsrud, noted, “We plan to make this an annual event—but hopefully it won’t be needed. I hope increasing awareness makes it less and less necessary. If we are effective, it won’t need to be an annual event.”

But as long as it is needed, members of the Never Again Coalition plan to support such efforts.

“I feel, being Jewish, we always say never again—but it’s happening again so we have to make sure people know about it,” said Alex Baird.

For more information on the genocide in Darfur and atrocities against women and children in the Congo, as well as ways to help the victims, visit www.neveragaincoalition.org and www.jww.org.