Hope for Afghan Children

On June 30th, Veterans for Afghanistan put on our first-ever fundraising event to benefit AFCECO, called "Afghanistan Stories."  There were six of us on stage, five Army veterans and one civilian humanitarian worker, all telling true stories about our very real experiences on the ground in Afghanistan.  I'd initially billed this as an hour-long event, but we ended up telling stories for two and a half hours!  But the audience laughed and cried with us and stayed glued to what was happening on stage.  And they were generous, too!  A small crowd of fewer than 20 people raised $373 in cash, plus some later donations brought our total for the evening up to $500.  The manager of the Belleville Lounge in Brooklyn didn't charge us any overhead, so all of the funds went to AFCECO.  We will definitely do more of these events.  It meant a lot to each of us to tell our stories, our audience seemed moved by what we said, and the kids in Kabul get to benefit.  That's a win-win-win situtation!