Former Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Queen Noor of Jordan, actors Matt Dillon and Sam Waterston, and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer were in town Thursday night for Refugees International’s 32nd anniversary dinner at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium. Dillon told Yeas & Nays that he got involved in the organization through the late Richard Holbrooke, his friend and former U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, “I had a dear friend who I met through Richard who was killed in a car wreck while doing work in Albania and that was one of the reasons why I really got involved with this organization,” Dillon said.
Dillon has been working with Refugees International for more than a decade and joined the board of directors four years ago after being “corraled” by actor Kevin Bacon. “I love doing stuff with them. It’s not like I have to do it, but I get to do it,” he says. Glad to see that the six degrees of Kevin Bacon has brought another celebrity do-gooder to the nation’s capital.
