While on Twitter today I had a thought – why is it that nobody in my circle of friends is talking much about Haiti? And it came to me quickly – its not for lack of caring – its because they *DO* care so much, because, like me later tonight while watching live coverage on the News – its so overwhelming, so devastating, that we are numb with the emotion of it. And we don’t know what we can do! We can donate money of course.. but some people don’t have spare cash to give so here is a small way to help.
1. If you are a band or musician and want to help – consider doing a *comfort doll photo. We will send you a knitted doll in the mail, you’ll have someone at your end take a photo of you/the band holding the doll, and send it back to us via email. We’ll auction the photo and send proceeds to one of the Haiti relief agencies – World Vision, Save the Children are the two of my immediate choice as I’ve worked with them in the past 3 yrs and trust them to get the money to Haiti immediately. If you are willing to eat the cost of postage – we will send you a card to autograph as well, and you might donate some band swag – guitar pick, set list, used drumstick… small things. YOU will have to mail that to the auction winner (hence eating the cost of postage – about 10 bucks from Canada to Canada or Canada to USA.)
ALL MONEY donated by Canadians is going to be matched, dollar for dollar, by our Canadian Govt. up to February 12. So by us running the auction, even if we only bring in 20 dollars for your band’s photo – that translates to 40 dollars on the front lines.
AND NO you dont have to be a band with a contract. If you have a Myspace, Facebook Fan page, Twitter account and are willing to help promo the auction daily from start to end (3 days? 5 days max) all it takes is 2 fans who want that package – and the bids go up. Thats it.
*if u want to know what a ‘comfort doll’ is – please read the stickied post above this blog post*
2. IF YOU AREN’T A BAND, but still want to help somehow – spread the link to this blog. Add it to your blog with a short write up. Send it to bands that you know, even if they’re unsigned. If they want to help, and have loyal fans (numbers don’t matter, loyalty does – will the fans support it?) then lets get it going.
And spread this link on your twitter page – a short tweet about #Haiti and a shortened URL link – get it RT’d and lets do it.
(and yes! i’m going to be busy knitting dolls! )
