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Have a Heart Fundraiser for kids with heart defects

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Roughly one in one hundred children around the world are born with congenital heart defects. These range from minor to life-threatening. In rural places around the world with little or no access to adequate healthcare, such cases can prove fatal at an early age. This reality is no less true in Yunnan's far-flung places, where children are sometimes properly diagnosed but still have no recourse because surgery is a financial impossibility for their families.

Local not-for-profit Village Progress, in cooperation with China California Heart Watch, is raising money for five Yunnan children who desperately need life-saving surgeries. They all live in Tengchong County in western Yunnan, and range in age from one to twelve. Their individual stories have been published online at You Caring, a crowdsourcing website where you can make a digital donation.

Benefit Details

On Sunday, November 22, DT Bar will host the Have a Heart Fundraiser to benefit all five of the kids in Tengchong who otherwise cannot afford life-saving operations. Proceeds from the event will be donated to Village Progress, which will put the money toward the necessary surgeries.

In addition, all money raised will be matched — dollar for dollar — by Dr Robert Detrano, who was recently honored by Yunnan governor Chen Hao for his decade-long dedication to fighting the epidemic of childhood heart disease in the province.

The benefit begins at 4pm and will feature a dazzling array of raffle prizes, performances by ten bands and DJs, as well as food vendors. Everyone performing, selling food or pouring drinks is donating their time and profits to the cause. Tickets to the event cost 30 yuan per person and include one ticket to the prize giveaway. Additional raffle tickets will be on sale at DT Bar during the event for 30 yuan each.

DJs Xiao Kris (left) and DSK
DJs Xiao Kris (left) and DSK

Bands scheduled to perform

Nevada & The Yucca Nukes (country blues rock)
The Great Apes (indie rock)
MDA the Blacksmythe (hip-hop)
• Funk Syndacate (funk and disco)
• Sandauni (West-African gypsy jazz)
• In Cahoots (classic covers)
• Fly the Panda (eclectic rock)
Eddy (rock n' roll)
• Andrew & Sean (indie rock)
DJ DSK (hip-hop, breakbeat)
DJ Xiao Kris (electronic awesomeness)

Food and yum

• American-style BBQ by Sarah
• Cakes and pizza by As You Like
• Burgers by Great Australian Bite
• Deli meats, cheeses and bread by Cantina
• Libations by DT Bar

A warm-up brunch beginning at 11am will be hosted by The Park Grill and Bar, with a portion of proceeds going to the Have a Heart Fundraiser.

Raffle prizes

• Tandem hang glider flight in Dali from Paraglide Yunnan
• 3 gift packages of Dali Bars
• Voucher for one large and one medium pizza from Brooklyn Pizzeria
• Home-made guava jam by Lorena
• Bottle of single malt whisky from the Whiskey Company
• 5 vouchers for Cantina (100 yuan each)
• 2 cases of Vedett Beer from O'Reilly's Irish Pub
• Steak dinner for two with bottle of wine from Great Australian Bite
• 2 bottles of Absolut vodka from The Mask
• 3 copies of John Nevada Lundemo's debut album Rocket Chair
• 2 bottles of premium wine from Alei Lounge Club

Tickets to the Have a Heart Fundraiser are on sale now at Brooklyn Pizzeria, Cantina, Great Australian Bite, Humdinger Brewpub, Lost Garden Guesthouse, The Park Bar and Grill and Wheatfield Bookstore.

Those wishing to donate their time as a volunteer can contact John Nevada Lundemo on his WeChat account. Search for 'nevadakunming'. Previous efforts of this kind have been ridiculously fun while also raising much-needed money for good causes. Let's work together as a community to make the Have a Heart Fundraiser a complete success!

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Comments

While I've personally donated significant amounts of money to related causes in the past and people will probably hassle me for making this comment, I can't get over how fundamentally hypocritical it seems to evoke empathy for heart-health in humans while advertising eating meat at the same event. Just my 2c.

PS. To clarify, I do support the event ... though won't be in town to attend. Have fun and congratulations to all the organizers for a good job!

Last time I checked, there have been no scientific studies linking consumption of meat and CONGENITAL heart defects, for which this fundraiser is being held. Just my 2 mao.

Note that it is not necessary to be in town to support the event.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Ian, his bread and pizza, will be unavailable for the fundraiser.

Nooooooo!!!

Consider yourself hassled.

Jiajia of As You Like has been added to the list of food purveyors. She will be baking vegetarian pizzas

Awesome!

Great day to be in Kunming. That will have to go down as possibly the best night ever here. Amazing music, good food, awesome people. Thanks to Juliette and Matu for making DT the best possible place for this event. Thanks to all the musicians and sound people. Thanks to the food vendors. Thanks to all the donors. And thanks to Cas and John (even with the gimpy gout leg you made this whole thing happen). We had raised about 30,000 up to yesterday and I think this event may have doubled that.

Really good event, should be more like it.

Update: The event raised more than 30,000 on top of the 30,000 raised by the community before the event. So I will be handing over 60,000 to ChinaCal later this week. Thanks to the generosity of all the musicians, vendors, donors, DT Bar, John and Cas and all of you who participated.

Appreciation for John, who performed despite experiencing a fair amount of pain.

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