The Shadan Karimi Memorial Fund
Shadan Karimi
It is with heavy heart that we write this update to raise funds for
The Shadan Karimi Memorial Fund, to honor a beloved BCOA volunteer who died on June 23, 2026, from injuries in a serious car accident on June 14
(https://wnyt.com/top-stories/five-injured-after-crash-in-rensselaer-county). Shadan was a critical part of helping BCOA co-sponsor the Afghan refugee families who came to Bennington County without any English when she was a freshman at Bennington College. In those early spring days of 2022, when no one in Bennington County spoke Dari or Pashto, thank goodness we had Shadan, whose mother tongue was Farsi, which is similar to Dari. Throughout her time in college, she continued to volunteer for special projects with the refugee families, all while working on campus and studying for the degree in architecture and psychology that she earned in 2025. Shadan literally wanted to build a better world, to design homes and buildings where people felt well and at ease, incorporating her grounding in traditional Persian architecture.
Since the accident, BCOA Board Members have been working around the clock, helping facilitate communication among Shadan’s family abroad; hospital doctors, nurses and staff; her extensive network of friends and classmates; U.S. legislators; and Bennington College. The most urgent task has been supporting her parents’ applications for U.S. visas to come be with their daughter. Thanks to direct contact from a BCOA Board Member to the U.S. Embassy in the country to which her father was traveling to attend a conference at the time of the accident, and strong efforts of Bennington College, the whole Vermont U.S. Congressional Delegation, and the county sheriff where the accident happened, the parents were granted expedited visa interviews. Their visas were initially denied under the current U.S. Administration’s ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of their home country. Appeals for exceptions to the ban led to her mother receiving a visa, but sadly not in time before Shadan’s death. Her father’s appeal is still pending. Making what must be the most difficult decision, her parents instructed the hospital to donate organs from Shadan’s body to save the lives of Americans – truly an act of kindness and compassion.
Shadan’s friends and classmates have raised more than enough to cover the cost of preparing and sending her body and belongings back to her family. Other expenses have added up, including for her parents’ travel to that neighboring country with a U.S. Embassy where they could apply for visas, their lodging and living expenses there, and U.S. visa application fees. We haven’t even begun to assess potential legal costs to pursue justice for Shadan and her family in connection to the accident. Further, her parents wish to make a memorial contribution in honor of their beloved daughter to charity(ies) their daughter would have chosen.
Please help us support Shadan’s parents as they grieve the death of their youngest child without having been able to say ‘goodbye’ in person.
The Shadan Karimi Memorial Fund,is a fitting tribute to a dynamic young woman whose time on earth was too short. All of us who were lucky enough to cross her path are grateful we had the opportunity to hear her laughter, to share her optimism, and to learn from her gracious way of saying “I am sorry” as an expression of humility. We are so sorry at losing her! May her departed soul rest in peace.
BCOA Team
RELOCATING INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDP's)
Helping Relocate Endangered IDP's to Safer Locations.
Dear Friends and Donors:
Under the current Administration, BCOA's application to sponsor Family #10 with Rainbow Railroad (www.rainbowrailroad.org) is DOA. We have already returned the generous grant to the Vermont Community Foundation. In the meantime, we are pivoting to support Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). As defined by the UNHCR, an internally displaced person is "someone who is forced to leave their home, but who remains within their country's borders." In partnership with
PFLAG Dorset, we have been requested to help families of trans children to relocate to Vermont as well as trans folks planning to emigrate to safer havens abroad. Furthermore, foreign students, with legal visas, studying in VT have been severely affected by new immigration policies of this Administration.
BCOA is currently housing an IDP who is waiting for her work permit, which usually is a routine approval with her valid student visa, but not under this Administration. Her situation is precarious and she might need to leave the country. And the worst part, her new VT employer, with a shortage of qualified applicants, will continue to have a major hole in its organization. Our work continues thanks to your continued support, financially or morally. Donations are still welcome to support the families BCOA has co-sponsored so far, and to IDPs, at our website --
www.BCOpenArms.org . All donations are tax-deductible. If it takes a village to raise a child, it will take many villages to host new arrivals to our corner of Vermont, while providing a safe and nurturing environment. We need all your heartfelt energy.
In peace,
BCOA Team
Bennington County Open Arms
c/o The Dorset Church
P.O. Box 263
Dorset, VT 05251
BCOpenArms@gmail.com
