I'm so excited! Two of my favorite things are coming together to smash extreme poverty in the face! Black Bear Burritos, one of my favorite Morgantown restaurants is hosting a benefit night for Nuru International October, 5, 2015 from 530PM to close at the downtown restaurant location! There will be live music AND proceeds from the sale of the special "Bowl Lotta Love" will benefit Nuru!!!
It means a lot to have a local business championing Nuru, but it has even greater meaning because one of the owners of Black Bear, Jason Coffman, has been my friend since high school, and, while I always get super-amped when people join Nuru's efforts to fight extreme poverty, it is extra special when good friends and folks from our state get involved! Nuru's CEO, Jake Harriman, hails from Preston County, West Virginia and many of Nuru's earliest staff and board members are either native West Virginians or WVU alums (and sometimes both!). People from our state love to celebrate good things that West Virginians are doing and Black Bear and Nuru are two entities as a West Virginian that I love celebrating!
And Black Bear, aside from being a business launched by a good friend and high school classmate (senior class president I might add!), is a business that in my opinion champions good things in and from our state. For starters, the black bear is West Virginia's state animal! The artwork featured in the restaurants comes from West Virginia artists and many of the musicians who setup on the stage are either West Virginians or they hail from Appalachia. Not only that, Black Bear strives to host an assortment of West Virginia crafted beverages along with maintaining an array of ingredients for their food sourced locally. This benefit follows closely on the heels of Nuru getting recognition by official resolution from both the WV State Senate and House of Delegates for its work fighting extreme poverty in Kenya and Ethiopia.
In addition to these amazing West Virginia connections, I'm also proud to say that almost every one of our early staff at Nuru has eaten at Black Bear at least once, so Black Bear Burritos has become something of a legendary dining establishment among those early Nuru alums. And as Jamie and I have increased our travel to share Nuru's story with other people and invite them to join our efforts, Black Bear Burritos is one of the 'tastes of Morgantown' we look forward to enjoying when we return.
On a more personal note, I'm incredibly proud of what Jason and Matt have done in creating Black Bear Burritos. Jason, Matt, and their team have created what I consider a restaurant atmosphere that provides a common ground and a community space for people from a variety of backgrounds and tastes. A kid friendly space with frequent live music and local art, and a delicious menu with something for just about anyone is kind of a tall order for a college town (or any town for that matter). When friends visit from outside Morgantown, Black Bear is one of the first restaurants I want to introduce them to. And when friends visit who used to live in town, it's usually at the top of their list of places to dine upon their return.
I'm really excited about seeing some old friends at the event tomorrow, and possibly making some new friends too! If you are unable to join us for the event, will you stop by our event page and donate online? Every contribution helps!
Hope to see you there! And remember, together, we can end extreme poverty in our lifetime! Let's never stop believing we can change the world, because to not believe it would be downright silly!
Go Black Bear! Go Nuru! And let's goooooooo Mountaineers!
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