Dear editor, One of the most inspiring events I have attended at Napa Valley College was the staging of “The Laramie Project” six years ago. It made me particularly proud to work at a community college that illustrates, in the many of the events we hold for the public, our commitment to the ideal that an educational institution should take a leading role in repudiating hate crimes in our society.

Now, 10 years after the death of Matthew Shepard, whose murder and subsequent trial forms the basis of the play, the college is again revisiting the drama in a reading at the Napa Valley Opera House on Sunday evening, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m.. The event will be a fundraiser that will benefit both the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the college’s department of dramatic arts. Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, has identified only two events at which she will speaking during this significant time, and the Napa fundraiser is one of them.

I urge members of our community to attend. Regular tickets for the fundraiser are $40 for the public and $25 for students. A 5:30 p.m. special reception with Judy Shepard, prior to the fundraiser, with admission to the reading included, is $75. More information is available at www.nvccjtc.org/laramieproject.html.

Chris McCarthy, president / Napa Valley College