Eats for Ethiopia: Family’s trips to Africa inspire fundraiser
LONGMONT — The Howlett family’s first visit to Ethiopia lasted eight days.
But it was enough.
“It just gets in your heart,” said Lory Howlett, who made the trip in July 2008 with her husband, Dave, and the couple’s two daughters. “We were there for eight days, but it may as well have been eight weeks.”
That summer, the Howletts traveled to a small orphanage in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to adopt Amelia, a premature and malnourished infant.
Allison Howlett, the couple’s eldest daughter, said the trip in 2008 “really opened my eyes.”
“It never occurred to me that people could live like that,” said Allison, an eighth-grader at Westview Middle School in Longmont. “Just seeing all the need there made me want to do something.”
With support from the school and her family, Allison organized “Westview Eats for Ethiopia,” a fundraiser at Longmont’s Chick-fil-A. The restaurant will donate 20 percent of its proceeds from 4 to 8 p.m. Jan. 12 to the Howletts, who will use the money to buy food in Ethiopia for the orphans during their upcoming trip to the country.
Lory and Dave Howlett will return to the African country at the end of January to bring home another Ethiopian orphan, a 4-year-old boy named Bereket.
“They say he’s quite the sportsman,” Dave said, beaming with fatherly pride.
The couple plan to stay in the country for two weeks and volunteer with Children’s Heaven, a program that supports orphaned girls whose parents have died from AIDS. Dave, who has a background in marketing research, hopes to help a start-up nonprofit in the southern part of the country implement economic development programs for widows and orphans.
The decision to adopt — once again — was unanimous, the couple said. After several miscarriages, they adopted Abby, their 11-year-old daughter, after the infant was born to a teenager in Kansas City, Mo. Amelia, who is now nearly 2 years old, is a happy, bubbly toddler. So why not expand the family one more time?
“We’re either crazy or stupid or something like that,” said Lory, 42, with a chuckle.
“We take big risks in our lives,” clarified Dave, 49.
Allison said her blended family has shaped her plans for the future. She hopes to become a nurse and practice medicine in Ethiopia.
For Lory Howlett, her daughter’s global perspective is an emotional topic.
“It’s all I could hope for,” she said as she stifled back tears. “We wish we wouldn’t have been in our 40s when we figured it out.”
