Good Neighbor Gala

Thursday, October 17, 2024

The Arbor Loft

17 Pitkin Street, Rochester, NY 14607

Doors Open & Cocktail Hour: 5:30-6:30

Program: 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Join us for food, entertainment, special guests, and raising funds for World Relief Western New York!

For three years, World Relief Western New York has been partnering with community members like you to welcome and walk alongside immigrants and refugees as they find belonging in their new home.

In one moment, it’s looked like showing up at the airport, with little notice, to welcome a new Afghan family arriving in Rochester. In other moments, it's looked like navigating school registrations, rental agreements, doctor appointments, and so much more!

These first three years have been challenging, but also brought us great joy. That’s why our Good Neighbor Gala will be a special one as we come together to look back on your impact and look forward to welcoming a greater influx of refugees and immigrants arriving to Western New York this year.

Our goal is to raise $50,000 to walk alongside immigrants and refugees in Rochester. Will you help us?

Donate Today

Keynote Speaker: Karen González

Karen González is seeking to see and love her neighbors as God does. She is a speaker, writer, public theologian, and immigrant advocate, who herself immigrated from Guatemala as a child. Karen is a former public school teacher and attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where she studied theology and missiology.

For the last 15 years, she has been a non-profit professional, currently working for an organization that serves asylum seekers. She wrote a book about her own immigration story and the many immigrants found in the Bible: The God Who Sees: Immigrants, The Bible, and the Journey to Belong (Herald Press, May 2019). Her second book Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to Immigration (Brazos Press, October 2022) seeks to elevate the discourse in the church beyond hospitality to immigrants.