En Solidaridad
By Andy Burness, March 11, 2010
My daughter, Molly, announced her discovery one day recently: “There’s a Chilean place in Bethesda!”
And there it was: Valparaiso Eterno, sandwiched between an Indian place and a Thai place, a banner in front covering its broken sign. It was hard to believe we hadn’t noticed it before – Bethesda’s in our backyard, and my family has adopted Chile as a second homeland following my year there as a high school exchange student about 40 years ago. But we hadn’t.
When a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile two weeks ago, my wife Hope and I went for dinner, just to be there, in solidarity. We were the only ones in the restaurant. And talking to the owner, Pablo, we learned that wasn’t unusual: Valparaiso Eterno was struggling. The banner outside was up because repairing the sign would be expensive, and the money wasn’t there. Pablo wasn’t sure that they would make it through the year.
Sitting in the empty restaurant, watching images of devastation thousands of miles away, we came up with a plan. And a week later, over 60 people packed Valparaiso Eterno for a fundraiser that yielded more than $5,000 for the Red Cross International Relief Fund, counting contributions from those who couldn’t attend. We’re proud to join with all these people to do our part for disaster relief, and Pablo couldn’t be happier. With the extra business, he figures he can hang on until the World Cup, when Chile’s participation will give him another boost. (As, I hope, will the Fox News cameras that showed up to record the news segment that appears to the right of this post.)
It’s a good story, and the funds we raised will help. But with over 200 aftershocks so far, half a million homes destroyed and somewhere between $15 and $30 billion dollars of damage, Chile needs more. So I hope you’ll consider making a contribution towards Chilean earthquake relief. The Red Cross is accepting donations at their website; you can also donate by text messaging “Chile” to 90999.
