B5 Learning Center – Novtember 26, 2025

At B5, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving in the month of November. There’s a tree on the wall, and everyone is invited to add leaves to it. While leaves are dropping from trees outside, we’re adding leaves with messages of gratitude to our tree, and on the 25^th we had an early Thanksgiving with families from the B5 community, introducing them to the Thanksgiving basics, like mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. We did the basics; they added what they could. The food tables overflowed as we shared a meal in celebration and gratitude.

All this is made possible because of you, and others like you, who have given generously to our work. Your contributions make this work possible. You help make the Tri-Cities a more welcoming place.

People often ask how our B5 families are doing in these uncertain times. Are they afraid? That’s not a question that we ask, but a recent poll published in the New York Times (November 19, 2025) found that roughly 70 percent of immigrants, regardless of status, would make the choice to come to the U.S. again. The poll found that immigrants still feel safer here than in their home countries. And, “they believe their own future, and their children’s future, to be bright.”

That’s an encouraging poll, and one we see at work in our people.  One mom with 3 kids affirmed that poll when she told me, “If I am poor in America, it is by choice. Here there is opportunity to work, and if I get more education it will be even better.” The work of B5 is to equip our students with the skills they need (language and literacy) to get jobs, improve their job situation, or pursue further education.

One of the students in our adult English program, a young mother from Afghanistan, exemplifies this opportunity. Shmala is going to move on from our program to CBC in January. She’s been learning English with us since she arrived in the Tri-Cities in October 2021, taking short breaks for the birth of two children.  In January she will begin online classes so she can pursue her college education, a dream she’s had since she was a little girl.
 
Shmala was apologetic when she told us she will begin studying at CBC.  When Shmala first arrived, the Tri-Cities felt like a dark place to her and her husband. They knew no one here, and they were grieving the loss of their country and all their livelihood. In the midst of that dark place, a time when she was cut off from the support of her own family in Afghanistan, “B5 became my family,” she said. She doesn’t want to leave the community, so she will continue at B5 as a childcare provider and a reading tutor for our elementary students. We will continue to walk alongside Shmala in her educational journey, and count on her input to help others.

This pause in refugee arrivals could feel like a threat, but we’re choosing to see it as an opportunity. Taking time to ask our students about their goals will help us learn how to improve or add to our program to better prepare our students for the workforce or for further education. We’re talking to students who recently arrived and to students who’ve lived here for over 20 years. Your support helps keep us focused on the opportunities before us. This Thanksgiving, we are especially thankful for you.

With Gratitude,

Theresa Roosendaal
Executive Director

Thank you to all of you who give your time and money, so refugees and immigrants can find welcome at the doors of B5. Your donation in any amount allows us to support our programs to help newly arrived refugees THRIVE in our community. Will you join us?

Donations can be made through our website 
or they can be mailed to:
B5 Learning Center
715 S Jean Street 
Kennewick, WA  99336

Contact us:
(509) 221-1572
info@thriveatb5.org
 
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