After a mild winter here in the Boston area and as the green of daylilies starts to push up out of the ground and buds on trees optimistically appear, we could never have predicted that we are all house bound and scared. Going into the Covid-19 crisis, all the LexRAP families were working….one parent or both parents and some youths. Very quickly we have seen our families affected by this economic shut down. Almost immediately, several of the families have lost their source of income and at least one head of household has become sick. We are very fortunate that almost all of our families live in communities that have kept their food pantries open, have social services that may be able to help, and that children on free and reduced breakfast/lunch are getting “take out” from the schools. For these services, the families are grateful.

We don’t know how long we will all be asked to ‘shelter in place’ and we don’t know what things will look like on the other side of this economic plunge. Our families are among the most vulnerable. LexRAP is trying to stay in touch with the families to see how they are doing and help them access all help available. The folks involved with tutoring the children and being liaisons between the parents and the schools are doing Zoom meetings and texting to try to keep the children up to date as much as possible.

LexRAP is bracing for the worst. This is going to be a long haul. We anticipate that we will have to help financially in ways and to greater levels than we have had to up until now.  For this reason, we ask our supporters to donate what they can now. Donations may be made at http://www.lexrap.org  Please help – all donations go to support the families.

Our next great Idea!!

We want to keep the children engaged!  Yes, they have school work to do while at home but  with the use of Zoom and the creative resources of the group of people that this newsletter reaches, we thought we could try to put together some enticing 40 minute “lessons” that will engage the kids and also bring the kids together in community with each other.  Perhaps you play a musical instrument and could introduce it to children in an interesting way. Perhaps you went to the Grand Canyon and took some great pictures and can talk about the geography and history of that place. Or, you read all of the Harry Potter books and saw all the movies and are excited to lead a discussion with kids.  Perhaps you were going to be Captain Parker in the Battle of Lexington re-enactment (that got canceled) and want to talk about that!! Think of a topic, think of the age group that is appropriate. Zoom is easy to use and we will supply a moderator who will set up the Zoom meeting and who will invite the kids. If you are interested in participating, please email Alexandra. Let’s see if we can have some fun!

• Our Hand-in-Hand Dinner for April has been canceled.  There was no dinner planned for May because of Ramadan.  Let’s hope we can have the planned dinner on June 13th.
• Steering Meetings will be held using Zoom.  Next one is planned for April 30th.  If you would like to attend email Don.
• Monthly Lunch Program “Building Bridges One Meal at a Time” is cancelled for now.