Effort underway in La Crosse to deliver school supplies to Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) - A school supply drive is being conducted by Coulee region colleges for Afghan refugees currently housed at Fort McCoy.

The effort, called Operation Allies Welcome School Supply Drive, was launched by a group of community partners, including the Great Rivers United Way and the School District of La Crosse, and educators at UW-La Crosse, Viterbo University and Western Technical College to support the classrooms at Fort McCoy for nearly 2,000 refugees that are attending classes at the base as part of the effort to help them adapt to life in the United States.

Heather Linville, UW-La Crosse Director and Associate Professor and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, said that after seeing the need for supplies first-hand, instructors from the colleges realized they could help by getting supplies to the classrooms at Fort McCoy.

“We collaborated with the Department of Homeland Security and Fort McCoy to create a wish list of essential educational materials,” Linville said. “By purchasing items from the wish list, the public can help our Afghan guests in a very real way.”

For anyone who wants to contribute, they can buy items from the campaign’s Amazon wish list. The purchases will be delivered right to Fort McCoy to speed up the process of getting the supplies to refugees.

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