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The beneficiary of tomorrow’s Chug-Off for Charity at the new Great Leap Brewing is Magic Hospital, a 10-year-old organization based in Beijing that organizes activities to cheer up sick, orphaned, abused, and generally neglected children. They’re a wonderful foundation, and to tell you more about it, here’s Lesley Sheppard, Magic Hospital’s volunteer communications director.
Some highlights:
On Mr. Liu, a “performance artist” who’s been working with Magic Hospital from the very beginning and has never missed a week of work (4:50): “You have children who are so sick maybe they’ll be in wheelchairs, maybe they can barely move, they’re so weak sometimes — and their eyes light up, they’re smiling, they’re waving, everyone wants to go up and touch him, hug him.”
On funds running low (15:48): “It’s every non-profit’s nightmare, trying to get enough funds. One thing that happened is all of our core team moved at one time. Poor Rob (Wang, director of Magic Hospital). It was Rob, and only Rob. And it wasn’t planned that way, it’s just how it happened. So as a result we missed some of our fundraising events, we got a little bit behind. At the same time, hospitals want us more days. So the hospitals that just had us on Saturdays want us on Sundays, and we don’t ever want to let any children down.”
On a particularly memorable experience (24:05): “I was there on the floor, we were playing some bingo, and I was singing some songs to them, and we’re having a great time, and I notice this one little girl over in the corner. She wasn’t participating that much, but there were a whole bunch of kids climbing all over me, so I didn’t focus too much on it. And when I began to sing the songs she perked up and she came running over and she just threw her arms around me, and she motioned — she can’t talk, she has some serious learning disabilities, but — she kept motioning with her hands, Up, up…”
Lesley and Rob are both expected to attend the Saturday event, where we’ll also have a lucky draw (sponsored by That’s Beijing) and some merchandise via Plastered 8 (like with the raffle, all proceeds to Magic Hospital). A portion of the sales on one of Great Leap’s beers will also be donated.
Download Episode 10 of The Creamcast here, or listen to it on iTunes.
Theme song sampled from Löhstana David’s ”Demain je change de vie,” and our logo is by Katie.
You can catch Amy Daml every weekday from 8 to 10 pm on China Radio International’s Easy Cafe. Anthony Tao @anthonytao is subbing for John Artman @knowsnothing on this episode.
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