After a several month absence from writing in this blog, I pick up my figurative pen to promote a worthy fund raising event – Three Cups of Tea Santa Cruz. Over 50 Santa Cruz artists have created theme related art to be auctioned off both on-line and at the event which will be held at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz, CA on February 11 at 5:30 pm. Many of the artists including myself created sets of 3 cups for the auction. The poster pictures a small selection of the art. All of the wonderful artwork can be viewed in the gallery of art on the 3 Cups of Tea website . i
For the second consecutive year some very fine local potters, Steve and Bonnie Barisof , have organized this event to benefit schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. All proceeds go to the Central Asia Institute created by Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools.
In the words of Steve and Bonnie: If you haven’t heard of him or the books, you have been missing some really wonderful and uplifting reading. It is about an attempt to climb K2, the 2nd highest mountain after Everest, how things went wrong for a climber on his team, how they had to quickly descend, and his getting lost. He somehow came to a very remote Pakistani village, was given food and shelter, and after he recovered asked what he could do to repay them. They asked for a school for their children! The rest of the story is about how he managed against great odds to actually do it. Today, about 17 years later they have helped to build 130 schools in Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, and they are all safe! Why? How come? Read the book, all of our foreign policies could take a chapter out of his books.
More information on the February 11 event can be found in this on the 3 Cups of Tea website .
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