Century student helps raise funds for new Rochester Ethiopian church
ROCHESTER — Members of the Rochester Ethiopian community gather together to raise money for a new church location in the future.
Dozens of men, women and children from the Ethiopian community gather together to raise money on Oct. 5, 2024. Tsedenia Bezie is a sophomore at Century High School and she put together a fundraiser at Cascade Lake Park in Rochester. The goal of the fundraiser is to help out her church, St. George Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Rochester, Minnesota.
The church congregation has continued to grow within recent years and they are trying to save up enough money to move into a larger location. They had another fundraiser a couple months ago for the same purpose.
"Our population is growing," said Bezie. "There's more representation. It's seeing more people like me. We need to show people in Rochester that we're here."
The Ethiopian community in Rochester has seen a growing presence in recent months, especially with the new Ethiopian store in town and rumors of an Ethiopian restaurant . Prior to opening in Rochester, the owners of Adey Abebe General Import and Ethiopian Store went to Bezie's church to see the interest. It was the community's positive response that led to the decision to open their storefront.
The fundraiser went from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with food, games and more. It was important to Bezie that there was stuff for children so they got a bouncy house and face paint. They also had foosball, cornhole and paddleball. They had traditional food and a DJ as well.
Towards the end of the gathering, Bezie and a group of girls and women gather to perform Abebayehosh, a Ethiopian New Years song. They went around singing while one of them played the Kebero, double-headed, conical hand drum used in the traditional music of Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia. While performing, the girls collected donations from the crowd.
"We want more people to know about us," Bezie said. "If anybody would like to donate to us so that we can get a new church that'd be great. Our church is located on Center Street by Wells Fargo, downtown. Come on and visit. We welcome everybody. You don't have to be part of our religion to come."
