A Nepalese-flavored benefit featuring food, artwork and live music at the Olde Silk Mill in Fredericksburg on Sunday will raise money for victims of the April 25 earthquake that left 8,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.
Every penny raised will go directly to the people of Nepal, where life has yet to return to normal in the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, said David Caprara, the Spotsylvania County resident leading this weekend’s event.
Caprara, who works for the nonprofit Global Peace Foundation, was in the capital city of Kathmandu a month before the quake for a youth conference on volunteerism. Days after the disaster, those same young people — many of whom were left homeless themselves — had organized into a group called Rise Nepal. They went right to work organizing aid and delivering supplies to their countrymen.
Rise Nepal, which is being supported by the Global Peace Foundation, has asked for help covering the cost of 1,000 temporary shelters. With a three-month monsoon season just beginning, many Nepalese are in dire need of a structure to see them through.
The dome structures, made of corrugated metal sheets and secured to the ground with galvanized wires, cost about $120 each.
Caprara hopes the event will raise enough money to cover a quarter of them.
Del. Bobby Orrock, will emcee the event. A concert will feature local groups Cabin Creek, Save the Arcadian, and Pete Mealy and Laurie Rose, as well as Prem Raja Mahat, a native of Nepal dubbed by NPR as “the Bob Dylan of Kathmandu.”
Fredericksburg-area artists are donating works to the silent auction; Virginia restaurateurs will offer for sale Nepalese food.