Photo courtesy of Ben Osborn | Brother Son performed at the Noise for Namibia benefit concert at Xavier. Proceeds went toward soccer equipment for Namibian villagers.
Senior Ben Osborn hosted the Noise for Namibia benefit concert featuring indie rock band Brother Son last Friday at Schmidt Field House. The premise was simple: to raise money for a village in Namibia, Africa. The concert had a few hundred students in attendance and raised more than $1,000.
Osborn went on a Xavier Expeditions trip to Namibia last May and formed a strong bond with the people in the village he visited. The people there enjoyed soccer but lacked equipment.
“We would go back and play soccer with all of the villagers of various ages, and they really didn’t have anything to play soccer with,” Osborn said. “Several of them didn’t have any kind of shoes, so that was just really difficult.”
By the end of the trip, he wanted to take action and promised the villagers that he would get soccer equipment.
Osborn aimed to engage students and host a fun event to raise the money for the equipment. “The idea was we could get people involved here at Xavier as well as kind of give back to the people that we met,” he said.
He had to find a venue and a band for the benefit concert with only two weeks to prepare. Additionally, he had to get students to come to a charity event on a Friday night.
Even with these challenges, the concert was a success.
Osborn does not want this to be a one-time event. He hopes to have an effect “that will start snowballing” and lead to more charitable events at Xavier.
By: Andrew Zerman | Guest Writer