Friends of Ethiopia Reads - Update

Dear Friends of Ethiopia Reads – Greater Washington DC:

I apologize for the tardiness of my e-mail update. I have meant to e-mail and let everyone know about our recent events and successes! (From the March 1st Whirlwind Weekend!)

Let me start by expressing thanks to:

Matt Andrea & Kenfe and Mimi at Sidamo Coffee Shop in Washington D.C. for hosting Ethiopia Reads and Jane Kurtz. Always a pleasure!

Bete Yilma for coordinating Jane’s appearance at Church and at the Highland Café in Silver Spring! Huge Success!

Veronika Jenke for coordinating the event at Busboys and Poets in Shirlington. Great Venue!

Thank you Jim Larsen for being instrumental in spreading the word.

Always HUGE thanks to Dereje Desta & Zethiopia for spreading our news!

I know that there were many more helping hands for the weekend and I thank everyone who helped with selling books, greeting, carrying boxes, donating, and all of the other ways you touched Ethiopia Reads with your generosity of spirit.

All of the venues were so accommodating – we had a great time, meeting new people and seeing old friends. Each event was financially successful with amazing support put toward our new “Basket of Books” program. We received $2500 in support through book sales and donations.

Additionally, that same weekend Ethiopia Reads received $700 of donations toward a publishing project! The DC friends of Ethiopia Reads will continue to raise money for this particular project.

Another success that stemmed from that weekend was the placement of two donation boxes. One is at Sidamo Café and the other at Highland. I haven’t had feedback from Highland, but the box at Sidamo has been wildly successful with Kenfe and Mimi bringing in $30-$50 worth of donations a week and selling out of Ethiopia Reads books regularly. It is GREAT.

I have hope for the DC chapter of Ethiopia Reads to get to the point where we have 10 donation boxes placed by the end of the summer. Let me know if you have ideas for venues.

Ethiopia Reads is NOT packing books at the World Bank Book Project this Spring, but we will now be packing books in the winter – so please stay tuned for more information regarding the Book Project.

We are continuing to collect books to ship to Addis and for people to carry over with them. (Thank you Mekdie, for your contribution of books and school supplies at the Highland Café event in Silver Spring!) If you or someone you know is traveling to Ethiopia – I am happy to supply you with books to take! This is obviously the most economical way for us (DC) to get books to Ethiopia – FREE!

I have started a blog for the Friends of Ethiopia Reads – DC Chapter – the blog address is:

http://ethiopiareads.blogspot.com/

I am hopeful that we can use this space to stay in touch more efficiently.

Now that Spring Break has passed for all of us we will have a meeting to discuss plans & goals for the next few months. We will meet on Monday, April 21 at 6:45 p.m. at the Noodles & Company at Pentagon Row – we have met there before and it is easy (Metro Accessible) and there is space! Please let me know if you can make the meeting – the more the merrier.

Again, thank you to everyone in the area - your commitment to help the children of Ethiopia is inspiring to me. I appreciate all that you do.



Best,

Catie Dupont

catie@ethiopiareads.org