Haiti Relief from Local Musicians

["The Freq"]

Local news and photography icon Donna Hopper is trying to organize a relief show for all the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. If interested in helping, contact her through Sootoday or her Facebook site. Here is her request sent to numerous musicians, organizations and businesses. This is obviously a great cause.

"Greetings All,

After looking at the video footage and images coming out of Haiti, I couldn't fight the urge to try to help one of our planet's poorest nations during its time of need. I have in mind a benefit concert... with a twist.

Rather than host one huge event in one location (which ultimately puts enormous strain on one establishment and a few individuals), I'm proposing this: The weekend of January 22-24, I'm urging all the downtown establishments... The Algonquin/ Rockstar Bar, Foggy Notions, Loplops, The Grand Theatre, Top Hat Billiards, Reggie's, Bottom's Up, Nite Life, Coch's Corner etc... to host a band/ performer (that will hopefully donate its time) for the entire weekend. Each bar charges $10 at the door, and all door money collected be donated to the Red Cross for Haitian relief.

Other businesses can lend a hand by donating items, services, or gift certificates for use as nightly door prizes.

By spreading the "event" out like this, establishments can still operate business-as-usual while still making an important and much-needed contribution.

I welcome your thoughts, suggestions and comments. Please forward this message/ idea along to any business or individual you feel might be interested in helping out.

Thank you for your time,
Donna Hopper "

[robfrules]

February 20th looks to be the new date, only one day now. An event page for it is now up at www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=288831975361

Hopefully this is a huge success, Haiti needs all the help it can get, so why can't we pitch in? Great cause, let's see some awesome bands get in with this!

["The Freq"]

The fund raising is now over for a weekend of Haiti support from local bands. I've heard mixed reviews from some venues but overall it sounds like it was a success. I am puzzled by the sudden cancellations of some bands at the very last second. This seems to be a common theme lately. I'm sure there is good reason for canceling on the day of the event or the day before but this seems to be becoming routine. I personally think it's bad karma and you should have a backup plan to fulfill your obligations whether it be a fill in musician or rather then say you're not playing, find a band to take your spot. That is what you're suppose to do. That is doing things the right way. That aside, I'm glad
things seemed to work out for the bands and venues involved. In my own fundraiser, I basically had an auction of some of my music gear and other trinkets I didn't want and put them on Ebay. (reverb unit, cymbal, car parts, ceramics, etc) That way, I kept things simple and donated the money to the cause. I've just found that when I played in fund raisers in the past with other bands, things got kind of hairy |O|. My way keeps it a little more personal. I was going to suggest an auction on Ebay of local musicians gear to Donna Hopper but the woman never seems to return my messages sooooooo I had my own auction. :-) I live and breath on Ebay so it was easy to auction off some goodies without any headaches and believe me, organizing 18 bands to play for charity can be a headache. :-) The great thing about doing an Ebay auction is that the funds come from everywhere, not just locally.

I am proud that the city of musicians took part in this fund raiser as any fund raiser is a good cause. I just hope all funds go to the right people. That has always been my grief in doing these types of shows. My own band supports both Alzheimers and MS charities on a personal basis so it's easy to see where the funds are going but I have gotten suckered on fund raisers for sick kids and other events that have taken place in the recent past where the funds vanished. Yup, there are people in the world that do that sort of thing and yes, it has happened locally. ;-) I hope ALL the Haiti funds go to the people who need it.... and that is, the people of Haiti ;-)