Tickets on sale now for August 6th Event
information and photos released
We are so excited to put on our popular fundraising concert again this year! This is the 15th annual Chelan to Africa Benefit Concert– our 15th year of raising money to help support vulnerable children in Lesotho, Africa. The concert is on August 6th, 6:00pm and is being held at the gorgeous Benson Vineyards Estate Winery. Kevin Jones Band has been an amazing supporter all these years and will once again entertain us with their live music. Tickets include dinner from Two Chefs catering and a complimentary Benson’s winery beverage. There will be silent and live auction items, the always popular pop-the-cork event, and a paddle raise. A portion of our proceeds will go to Thrive to help them in the incredible work they do to in helping support children in our valley to be healthy and reach their full potential. Tickets are on sale at: https://chelantoafrica.ticketspice.com/chelan-to-africa-15th-annual-benefit-concert
The Chelan to Africa team is a grassroots group of volunteers working to make a difference for a forgotten population of vulnerable children halfway across the world. The Tiny Lives Foundation has been a perfect match for helping us meet that goal, for it, too, is a grassroots organization started in 2004 by a Peace Corp volunteer who was asked to help save one infant’s life. Not only was that child saved, but TTL has worked to help 2600 children since that first child and in the process created a program that employs, trains and empowers local villagers. In this remote, mountainous area of Lesotho, with the ravages of HIV/AIDS, drought and the toil of subsistence living, it is not a given that children will make it to their 5th birthday. TTL is committed to helping “one child at a time” and continues to do so up to this day.
This year, several exciting things are happening. The first is that we have been asked to fundraise to build a 2-room schoolhouse. The village of Phutha is about 5 miles out of the town and there is no school. Everyone travels by foot or horse and so that 5 miles means that children are not going to school. TTL has been asked to build a schoolhouse with two rooms. One for a preschool and one that they hope will be filled by another teacher. TTL will also help support the teacher’s salary so all children can attend, regardless of cost. And, TTL helps provide food to the school so the children get nutritious meals. The total for this project is $10,000USD which I am confident we can raise on August 6th!
The second exciting bit of news is that two of The Tiny Lives Foundation board members are traveling to join us in person at our concert! Ellen Block is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. She has lived and worked with TTL in Mokhotlong, Lesotho and is an expert on the region. Her mother, Sheila Block, is also a longtime TTLF board member and has traveled to Lesotho many times. She comes to us from Toronto, Canada where she is a lawyer. Neo Lephoto is traveling to our event from South Africa where he is attending university.. He is from Mokhotlong, Lesotho and his mother is the longtime director of TTL in Lesotho.
Lastly, we are announcing that this is our final, big concert-fundraiser of this type. It has truly been a privilege to have worked with such a dedicated, generous and tireless group of people AND such an honor to interact with our community in such a memorable way. These concerts have been magical for us, the coming together of people to help children who are less financially fortunate, with compassion and generosity. We feel so lucky! We would like to truly thank all of the businesses and individuals that have donated over the years, the volunteers and the attendees. Also, in our thanks are the Benson family for their ongoing generosity and the Kevin Jones Band for their continued partnership.
