Hola.

We don't normally do Saturday posts, because our weekends tend to be focused on our families, some might even say they're sacred that way, but we (one of us, anyway) were sitting here on the sofa, drinking strong coffee and listening to NPR's Weekend All Things Considered, and we heard something we are going to share. It's, in part, why we brainstormed and began the Packawhallop grant.

Weekend All Things Considered's host, Scott Simon, was interviewing the author of Vaclav & Nena, Haley Tanner. And she said something so true about this country, the value of its diversity brought on by the layers and layers and layers of immigrants. We might be paraphrasing a tiny bit, and we'll check the show's transcript once NPR puts it on the site today, but Tanner said immigration and the immigrant experience wasn't the path to the American experience. She said that "the immigrant experience is the American experience."

That's right on, even if the emphasis there is ours.

Our grant program, focused on organizations promoting cultural diversity and understanding and acceptance, is meant to say we, Packawhallop, not unlike most people in the mainstream of society, absolutely welcome people of different cultures brought to this country and to Maine by immigration. Tanner, in part, nailed why.

Here's a link to the grant, and do tell people about it:

http://www.packawhallop.com/grant.html

Cheers. Continue with your weekend.