Two brothers from Orchard Park recently opened up their home for an unusual act of faith — one that brought together more than a hundred people and helped support a cause close to their hearts.
Christian and David Capello, devout Catholic brothers, recently held a unique and purposeful fundraiser where they welcomed the community into their home studio in Orchard Park to read the Bible cover to cover on YouTube nonstop.
"We had over 100 readers that participated, coming in and out of the house day and night. We never stopped reading the Bible. So through the night, 3 a.m., 4 a.m., there were 4,600 unique viewers, but there were over 17,000 views total on the stream," Christian said.
It took 5 days, 11 hours, and 17 minutes to finish. Those views turned into donations as the Capellos raised over $15,000 for various young adult ministries in the community, following in the footsteps of their grandfather, Tony Buttino, who was known for his time fundraising on WNED.
"Creating media is in our DNA," Christian said. "Our grandpa was the executive producer and creator of Reading Rainbow, so it is natural to use media and our YouTube channel, CapCatholic, to spread the faith, get people thinking, and hopefully spread the truth that God loves them and that He desires a relationship with them."
Christian told BTPM News they plan to distribute the funds to seven other Catholic ministries in the area.
"My sister and I lead a young adult group, a Catholic young adult group out of St. Vincent de Paul called the Way, and there are a lot of other young adult groups in the Buffalo area, and a lot of us don't have much funding just because of the state of the Diocese, which is understandable. But we feel passionate about investing in young adults, giving them opportunities for retreats, even just supplying Bible study materials and snacks for events," he said.
With the current state of the Diocese of Buffalo, David, who teaches Religion at Southtowns Catholic School, said he hopes this fundraiser leads to positive change.
"If we were doing this in a city that was really thriving in Catholicism, we'd be like, yeah, you know, that's pretty cool," he said. "We expect that. But to be in a place where at least it appears that it's not as thriving feels like going to the one out of the 99, and that's way more exciting because that's kind of like the heart of God: He wants to be in the tougher spots."
David added, "There's only one way to go. It's up, and we get to be a part of it. So, it's kind of more exciting for me that that is the sentiment of the church in the area that we get to kind of be a part of that. It feels more meaningful, and more kind of Christ being in it; it feels awesome."
Not only were friends, families, and strangers in their home reading the scriptures, but the stream itself felt like a personal experience with the viewers.
"This whole stream in general was a pretty intimate experience in the sense of, you know, people are in our home. We're being pretty raw. We're dancing around behind the camera, and so thinking like, imagine 4,000 people in this basement, like when you when you look at that perspective, that's insane. Like, those people are being invited into a pretty raw, authentic version of our lives; really is pretty cool," said David.
