|
Portland's Liberian Cultural Night
Fund Raiser for LEAP
by Stephanie Vickers, President of FOL
Our third fund raiser for LEAP (Liberian Educators for
Action and Peace) on Saturday, April 30, 2005 was another success
thanks in huge part to the extremely hard working planning committee
that I had the honor to work with (Rich and Josephine Hawthorne,
Paul and Linda Erickson, Julia and Seymour Hanfling and Rolia
Manyongai-Jones). In addition to the enthusiastic spending by a
wonderful crowd at the Portland event, many FOL members from across
the country mailed me generous monetary donations and a few shared
treasures from their attics, garages or closets by sending great
items for the silent and oral auctions. I was also fortunate to be
able to call upon many of my friends here in the Portland area to
pitch in and help on the day and night of the event.
We estimated over 200 people attended, causing us to again outgrow
our new venue just as we did last year. A group of Liberian women
prepared and served a large variety of delicious Liberian soups and
rice. What a very special treat! The majority of these women are new
to Portland having arrived as refugees. They were very proud to
share their food and truly enjoyed
the joy the food brought to many who patiently waited for their
dinner. One RPCV wanted to bury his head in the food table (palm
butter to be exact), but the women made him take a plate.
The oral auction that followed the silent auction was
lively and profitable. The wonderful dance troupe, Kukotonan, led by
Rolia Manyongai-Jones performed for the audience as did the choral
group, Lasana, and the Voices of Liberia singers. The Liberian cooks
were dressed in beautiful lappa suits that they modeled for the
audience. We concluded the evening with a dance party led by Charles
Madison, a Liberian immigrant.
Combining the admission ticket fee with the many mailed
donations from those who could not attend with the revenue from the
silent and oral auctions, we were able to surpass our earnings from
last year’s event. We are still open to those who might have
procrastinated and may still wish to send a tax-deductible donation.
You are very welcome to do so by sending a check made out to
“FOL/LEAP” to FOL’s treasurer, Jim Bowman (324 Amherst Dr., SE,
Albuquerque, NM 87106).
The planning committee is in the process of thinking
through what we might do in the future to continue our support for
Friends of Liberia's LEAP project. If there are others in the
northwest area who would like to join us in our work, please let me
know.
I do get emails from people who are interested in
trying something like this in their area. I am happy to discuss our
event with all who are interested. If you are, please contact me,
and I would be happy discuss it with you. It is a big undertaking,
but it is wonderful to know that we can still give back to Liberia
so many years after we served as volunteers.
|
