Stepping Into A Community \\ Best Buddies Prom 2017 - BY WALKER BROWN

We have felt for a long time that the most impactful and enduring way for us to build Lubanzi as a brand and as a social enterprise was to do our best to make ourselves and the wine a community endeavor, intertwining ourselves with local organizations, events, etc. here in Washington D.C., a city where international organizations, from around the world, have come to call home time and time again.

We had an opportunity to sponsor an event at the Ronald Reagan Building here in DC last week for an organization doing some really powerful and meaningful work nationwide. Best Buddies is an international organization, spanning all 50 states and 50 countries around the world, working to pair students and individuals in one-to-one friendships with people in the community with intellectual and developmental disorders (IDD). It’s a group that hits close to home for me; I helped run the organization at my university when I was in college, and so the opportunity to attend this event – the Best Buddies Prom! – bring our wines to pour for invitees, and be a part of that community felt like a necessity, and more importantly, was insanely fun.

We were psyched to be there, and the event was a massive hit, raising more than $300k and making for an unforgettable night for all the Buddies and their peers there. It will be really memorable for us too, so we wanted to share some photos from the night and encourage everyone to check out the work Best Buddies does (https://bestbuddies.org/) and say some thanks for all the great people out there in this global volunteer movement building a community of friends and confidants. Cheers to that.

-       Walker Brown