Gates/Sheard Family
The Gates/Sheard Family
The organization started with one family in New Mexico and has since branched out to other Scout leaders and Scouts around the country, along with sponsor families, schools, volunteers, attorneys, tutors, and donors who had no previous connection to Scouting at all.
Steve, the father, while Scoutmaster of Troop 98 in Taos, New Mexico, helped the Scouts in his Troop raise funds for some Goal Zero solar flashlights for a new Afghan Scouting movement, back in 2012. His boys Aydin and Koray helped with this as Cub and Boy Scouts. When Kabul fell in August 2021, Steve checked in with the Afghan Scout leadership and was immediately drawn into assisting them pursue their refugee visas. Perihan, the mother and former Scoutmaster of Troop 57 in Santa Fe, jumped in and the entire family began to help the refugees, provide funds for food deliveries by Scouts to Scouts in-country, and begin a program to get Scouts over here for schooling, particularly the girls who could no longer attend school.
Since then, it’s branched out to other Scout leaders, Scouts and communities around the United States. Part of the Scout Oath is “To help other people at all times” and in doing so, 24 of our 36 Afghan students studying in the United States are scholars we were connected with through a variety of teachers and underground schools. We still need more help to continue helping Afghan Scouters and students! Please help us continue to build this movement, whether or not you’ve ever been associated with Scouting. These young women and men and their families need our help.
Support the work this family started
ASRF grew out of Scout Troop 98 in Taos, New Mexico. It runs today on the same thing that started it — people deciding to help.