By Shelly Karpaty
the Kara Love Project
COMMUNITY // ACTIVISM
T
his story began in Venice 13 years ago
when Lily and Dave Dulan turned
their home into a local temple. Their
living room became a space for yoga and
devotional music where kirtan wallahs,
teachers, and artists like Joey Lugassy,
Mark Whitwell, and Spring Groove shared
their gifts. The couple brought people together
to teach, commune, and chant the names of
the Divine.
Lily and Dave moved out of their small
home in Venice to begin a family through
a challenging series of fertility treatments.
Lily was hospitalized for two months during
her pregnancy due to complications. Their
community came to support; there were even
kirtan sessions played bedside in the hospital.
In a long-awaited moment, Lily and Dave
welcomed their baby Kara Meyer Dulan on
May 22, 2009, while surrounded by their
welcoming community. Life did not go as
planned and Kara passed of SIDS on July 29,
2009, only two months after she entered the
world. It was devastating. The same people
who surrounded them in Venice were there,
singing, speaking, and grieving alongside them
at home.
After much growth and healing, Lily and
Dave adopted two baby girls, Marcelle and
Sally, who are thriving. Yet Lily felt called to
honor Kara’s brief life and her philanthropic
nature gave birth to the Kara Love Project.
The mission of the Kara Love Project is to
promote conscious giving and positive action
for underserved and marginalized individu-
als and communities worldwide. The Dulan’s
Westside backyard has become a venue to
support this mission through gathering
community. In 2017, the Kara Love Project’s
first annual backyard benefit supported the
Unatti Foundation, an organization with
which the Kara Love Project has an ongoing
relationship. Unatti is dedicated to raising
funds to provide food, shelter, and education
for orphaned and underprivileged children
living at the Unatti Group Home in Bhakta-
pur, Nepal.
Kara Love also collaborates with Venice
Arts, a program that provides free classes in
the arts to local youth. This cause is one of the
first to inspire the Kara Love Project; the
Dulans have been sending children to Venice
Arts Camp each summer since Kara passed
away.The Kara Love Project is a heartfelt example of how our heartbreak
and grief can become catalysts for deepening our service in the
world. Sometimes how we cope with and even transform sorrow
can be found in community, particularly if we’ve been cultivating
throughout life. For Lily and Dave Dulan, this is part of the story of
the creation of the Kara Love Project.