HOW $300 BECAME $17,000 TO HELP NEPAL
It is never too late to "play and pay it forward".
How did an initial $300 contribution from the Grand Lake Rotary to earthquake devastated Nepal grow into almost $17,000 of immediate aid to help The Small World Relief Program obtain over 60 tons of rice, 40 tons of lentils, and 60,000 liters of safe drinking water? Dedication, creative leverage, matching grants, and Rotary generosity all pulled together to have this small club, high in the Rockies, help Solukhumbu, its sister village even higher in the Himalayas.
The story of two mountain region's friendship really begins almost thirty years ago. Karma Sherpa, the founder of The Small World, lived with his 12 siblings in a small Nepalese village some 7700 miles away from Grand Lake. Too impoverished to go to school, he fended off tigers from his grandmother's livestock. His older brother, a renowned sherpa, helped a Colorado woman reach her goals on Everest, and in kind-hearted turn, she made a donation for Karma to attend school. The first of his village to receive a bachelor's degree, Karma Sherpa returned to "pay it forward" by giving other children in Nepal the same educational opportunities.
How did an initial $300 contribution from the Grand Lake Rotary to earthquake devastated Nepal grow into almost $17,000 of immediate aid to help The Small World Relief Program obtain over 60 tons of rice, 40 tons of lentils, and 60,000 liters of safe drinking water? Dedication, creative leverage, matching grants, and Rotary generosity all pulled together to have this small club, high in the Rockies, help Solukhumbu, its sister village even higher in the Himalayas.
The story of two mountain region's friendship really begins almost thirty years ago. Karma Sherpa, the founder of The Small World, lived with his 12 siblings in a small Nepalese village some 7700 miles away from Grand Lake. Too impoverished to go to school, he fended off tigers from his grandmother's livestock. His older brother, a renowned sherpa, helped a Colorado woman reach her goals on Everest, and in kind-hearted turn, she made a donation for Karma to attend school. The first of his village to receive a bachelor's degree, Karma Sherpa returned to "pay it forward" by giving other children in Nepal the same educational opportunities.
Meanwhile, Grand Lake Rotarian Avis Gray's son Ryan, a teacher at the Vail Mountain School, led some 10 high school service projects to Nepal, under the wise guidance of Karma. Ry reported back to our Rotary the many efforts of the Small World to bring access to girls' education, women empowerment, and community poverty alleviation -- where many make less than $1.25 a day. Three years ago, Grand Lake Rotary adopted several little Girls of Hope at Karma's relatively new home for young orphan girls, most vulnerable to international trafficking. Their warm pictures of playing ring-around-the-Rosie, or smiling at the new contents of their school bags, of course touched all of our hearts.
So when the April and May earthquakes struck, putting our Little Girls of Hope back into makeshift tents, killing many others and, according to UNICEF, destroying over 32,000 classrooms, Grand Lake Rotary would not sit idle. Our initial $300 contribution was matched by Trinity Church, and also by the Granby and Winter Park clubs. We had a giant town rummage sale--yes, even in the snow-- with generous contributions from residents and visitors alike. Ryan Gray, now a teacher in New Zealand, had his Maori students put on a Nepalese fund-raiser by serving indigenous "sandwiches" and Tallie Gray, a teacher here in Granby, had her students raise funds by selling their carefully home grown veggies. A generous woman vet in California somehow got wind of our small-town generosity, and matched all funds -- bringing our total efforts to approximately $17,000!
And this is not the final chapter. Three generations of Grays, Avis from Grand Lake, Ryan from New Zealand, Tallie and young Bowen (age 15) from Granby will be spending a month in Nepal with Karma to work with the Girls of Hope, to help them construct a mural of, enduring hope, and to physically help construct many temporary learning shelters in Solukhumba, near Everest. It is never too late to "play and pay it forward".
Grand Lake Rotarians with the new archival mural of the little Girls of Hope