Tibetan Village Project Dinner Fun-raiser, MC’d by yours truly, raises record $11K in half hour.

Last night…

for the second year in a row (More info & photos re this wonderful non-profit (100% of all donations go to the Tibetan Village Project’s work) here)

…I was honored with the weighty responsibility of emceeing, and helping to fundraise at the annual Tibetan Village Project Dinner at Tibet’s Restaurant in Louisville (a wonderful place owned and run by wonderful people, that I can highly recommend).

The Tibetan Village Project works to do the most basic, essential, and sustainable grassroots work in Tibet that really must be done, and Tamdin Wangdu, the founder, and his friends do it quickly and well.

Why is their work sustainable? Because they don’t just pay for teachers for schools or give medical supplies or winter blankets for the greenhouses they build, though they’ve done all those things…they actually listen to the villagers’ needs, and then give the villagers a means to feed and provide for themselves, forever (as with their tsampa mill and rapeseed oil press).

It’s the best, most essential, most humble and immediate organization I know.

Photos (you’ll notice my valiant iPhone’s photos get worse as the light gets dimmer, it’s a fine camera but has no flash):