Our new neighbor to the north, an associate dean at UNL, took us to a fantastic fundraiser last night at the UNL quilt museum. (The idea of a quilt museum sounds kinda dumb, but it's a really cool place that deserves to be seen.) The main event was a rousing live auction of African art. The first lady of Tanzania was on hand to get things rolling. It was amazing how much security was present for her. It's one thing to see the deplorable conditions in Africa on TV, it's another to actually talk with people that live there who are doing everything they can to improve things. Very inspiring evening.
The event was hosted by an amazing lady, Natalie Hahn. She has spent her life improving conditions for kids in Africa. Her main focus is to improve education there. Check her out: http://gobigred.unl.edu/featured/husker/Natalie_Hahn/.
We sat next to her cousin, Shorty. He was an original Nebraska character that talked JP's ear off all night. By the end of it, she knew who was who and everybody's secrets.
The auctioneer was the 1971 national champion. He's used to selling cattle and corn, not African artifacts. He was very entertaining as he tried to goad the crowd into spending more for a good cause. Everything in the auction was from Natalie's personal collection.
The kids in the culinary program prepared and served all of the hors d'oeuvres, and the girls in the textile/fashion program showed off African-themed clothes they created. We met the new dean of Engineering - I'm looking forward to visiting with him at work and chatting about how we can help each other.
We did our part to support the event: JP ended up winning a pretty basket (she loves baskets!). I wanted to buy a robe that was created for the supreme emperor of Ethiopia, but JP said no. It had 24K gold stitching and would look really cool anywhere. Our neighbor took home two HUGE embroidery panels. By the end of the night, the auction raised over $21,000.
Here's a link to the event and better pictures of the embroidery: http://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2013/08/20/African+art+gala+and+auction+funds+CEHS+scholarships+for+education+abroad
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