Local Vibe

So Ian Mackenzie and I head out to the T. to cover “Toronto plays for Haiti” on Tuesday February 2nd at Sound Academy (11 Polson Street Toronto Ont.) in Polson Pier. We arrived quite early, traffic was light heading in and we got exclusive first interviews with just about everyone performing or presenting that evening!

This is an event  close to my heart, at 8 years of age I went down on a missionary run with the church I attended at the time, Allsaw Pentecostal and made friends with a local Pastor Daniel who ran an orphanage comprised of 80 children that he fed, clothed and educated with his wife. After that my family raised money for them, with “Pennies for Missions” and my mother would bring it down annually and put it directly in his hands to help his work, caring for abandoned kids. I haven’t heard a word from him in years as it got too dangerous for my ageing mother to travel down to Haiti.  I really hope they are all ok. The phone lines are down and contact is slim to none at this point. They were right in the mist of Port-u-Prince a place hit quite hard in the region by the earthquake and aftermath.

The co-ordinators for the show were: Zeke Myers, myerszeke@yahoo.com, James Cybulski, james.cybulski@ctv.ca,and Darrin Pfeiffer, darrin@high for records.

The story is these three got together and thought what can WE do to help Haiti?

Each of them started making phone calls and in just 10 short days they threw this benefit concert together with the help of sponsors like Red bull, Smirnoff, FairMount Hotels, EMI, Tim Horton’s, SONY, 102.1 the Edge, local visual artist Dawn Grant donated an art piece to raffle, and many more local stores got involved and donated rock shirts, C.D.’s, and many other items too long to list here.

The honourable Peter Kent P.C., M.P. Minister of state of foreign affairs (Americas) vowed to match whatever was gonna be raised that evening which turned out to be 30,000 dollars by the end of the night, so we left knowing 60,000 in total would go to at least aiding in some small way even if it’s just fresh drinking water. He also told us that Stephen Harper lifted the cap on the fund raising efforts nationally and any one who wants to throw concerts or do bake sales even, the government is willing to match the money raised on an ongoing basis.

A representative from UNICEF:  Linsey Elliot spoke with me briefly regarding the situation in Haiti.  She informed me they were the first organization on the ground down there to help and protect the children, because in a state like this- complete chaos- children are the most vulnerable to exploitation.  She also told me that UNICEF has been working with locals for over 60 years  in Haiti and currently have a staff down there in port-u-prince of 50 people working day and night ceaselessly to aid in any way in this crisis.

The live performers of the evening were The Trews, (Ian’s Fav) Ill Scarlett, a ska/reggae band, U.S.S. a dance techno group, The Junction, good ole Rock band, Maestro Fresh Wes, born and raised in T.O. but currently resides in California who is putting out an inspirational book in the near future and just filmed a T.V. pilot and hopes the networks will pick it up,  Die Mannequin gorgeous girl, wicked performance,  Moneen a Hard Rock band, The Salads feat. “Choclair”  rocked out and at the end of the evening to wrap up the night they all did a song together as a surprise for the audience.

The Guest Presenters /Speakers for the evening were: Donovan Bailey, Micheal “Pinball” Clemons and his lovely wife, Ray Fontaine, Damon Allen, Eric Lindros, Obed Cetoute who plays for the Toronto Argonauts whom I had the privilege of having a lengthy conversation about his friends and family down there and how he first lived in Montreal when he arrived in this country and this situation is personal to him and even though most of his family is ok  they still struggle with the basics like fresh water and food. At the last minute “Cody” an injured player for the World Junior Hokey team showed up to donate and show his support and he is currently training for the Canucks.

Raffles were going on for ten bucks a ticket so I bought one and I decided to buy  a t-shirt to help the cause for 15 bucks, you can still purchase on the edge’s website a local artist “Chris” designed the logo. Get this, I won the Tim Horton prize pack!   Which included a $100 dollar gift certificate to Tim Horton’s, a coffee machine, A roots sweat shirt with a Timmies logo, several coffee packs and 2 coffee mugs and two travel mugs…WOOOOO HOOOOO best night ever, approximately 2000 showed!!!

Haiti has suffered so much in history. It is time the world stop viewing each other as separate and we all see each other as ONE and as the people of Haiti continue to suffer we are ALL suffering because we are connected.

Like Maestro said “We need to focus on our similarities, not our differences”.

This fund raising event is Not a one time cure, it may take decades to fix the devastation down there and let’s not forget that, in the weeks that follow even with the Olympic Winter Games approaching and the Haiti crisis slowly loses it’s impact in the media we should still gather together and raise funds over and over again, find out who from our surrounding areas is going down next and put money in their hands to get to the people. Or go to the 102.1 the Edge and they will have a link to the UNICEF’s website PLEASE GIVE UNTIL IT HURTS PEOPLE!  Raising money isn’t the problem it’s getting the aid distributed when it arrives and not rotting in containers at an airport while children starve to death waiting? So going with a reputable organization like UNICEF it is no doubt the best way to help in your small way, each penny counts!!