COVID changed everything for Georgia group helping migrants
NICK WOOTEN, The Ledger-Enquirer
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COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — Rita Ellis got the call around 1:30 on a recent afternoon.
Four men were being released from the Stewart Detention Center and were due to arrive in Columbus in less than an hour. The call was expected but came earlier than usual. A mass text went out, and the organizing and scrambling began.
Ellis and five other volunteers loaded their cars with newly-stocked supply backpacks and laptops to buy tickets for the men’s next stop. One helper stopped at a Burger King just down the road to pick up chicken sandwiches. Still warm in the foil, the released men would soon sit outside on benches and eat, talking between bites. It wouldn’t be long before the Groome shuttle station filled with the sounds of their hurried conversations.