You may have walked by The Saloon on U Street, you may have noticed the yellow painted names on their red brick. These are people that have donated more than $150 to their associated charity schools-building project, The Kamal Foundation. The Saloon and The Kamal Foundation builds schools in Africa, Southeast Asia and in other underserved parts of the world with the money they collect. Starting Sunday, they’ll be closed until September 2nd while they head over to Uganda and Ethiopia to build a pair of schools, so if you want one last fix of a great bar before they go dark for four weeks, get yourself there before the weekend.
And think about buying a brick while you’re there. This is the kind of stuff I’d love to see more of.
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
I think it’s great that they are making a significant contribution to a worthy cause. But, why couldn’t they use those bricks–or those $150 donations–to improve schools right here in DC?
My guess is that the $150 would get more mileage overseas. $150 isn’t shit here.
…because children in some countries would think they had died and gone to heaven if they had schools half as well-equipped as even the worst school in DC.