News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The Schlatter family looks at items for sale at a Ten Friends fundraiser.
Some 230 people - mostly from Sisters - trekked down to Aspen Hall in Shevlin Park in Bend to lend a hand to people who live literally and figuratively a world away.
The nonprofit group Ten Friends held its annual fundraiser last Saturday, building support for its work in Nepal, helping children with clean water, school support, orphanage supplies, stretchers and teacher training. Ten Friends assists rural villages with safe water, composting toilets, books for libraries, and education of their teachers.
Attendees were treated to a buffet highlighted by curried chicken, music provided by Brad Tisdel and a chance to bid on a range of silent auction items. Patrons were offered the opportunity to buy a symbolic sack of cement representing one bag that will be carried by a porter for five days in the Himalayan foothills to reach the village where it will be used to build a water station.
The symbolic sack of cement came with a Nepalese bracelet.
Similarly, patrons could buy a length of pipe representing part of the 5,000 meters of pipe that will be laid to ensure sanitary water for villagers. Each pipe contained a prayer flag.
The event was capped by a prayerful song by Tisdel, followed by an 18-minute video highlighting the work of Ten Friends in Nepal.
The event was a smashing success, according to Ten Friends cofounder (with Rand Runco) Mark Lamont.
"We had 230 people there, give or take," he said. "We had 150 last year."
Mostly through direct donations - one as high as $1,500 - the event netted approximately $12,500 for the organization. According to Lamont, that's enough to fund the water project and more.
"That will cover that project and that will allow us to install a bunch more water filters and bunk beds for kids who are sleeping on floors in orphanages," Lamont said.
For more information on the work of Ten Friends, visit http://www.tenfriends.org.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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