For a destination.
While in the past I have been involved in various causes of “great social and political import”, I have come to the realization that I’m getting too old to continue to on that road. Years of marching has left my hips pretty worn out. Organizing groups into a coherent message used to be a challenge, then it became tiresome.
Way back in 2009, a video came out by Playing For Change that rocked me, Stand By Me. The vision of PFC was simple. Peace Through Music. Traveling around the world finding musicians and recording them into songs of inspiration and peace and then building music schools in under developed countries to bring the joy of music to children renewed my sense of purpose.
Fortunately I still had my band of over thirty years to keep me sane during my years of fighting the power. Flash forward to 2013 and one of my band mates came up with a idea. He and his wife had moved to Christmas Valley Oregon to retire. Located in Lake County (next door to Harney County of the infamous Malhuer Wildlife Refuge standoff), Christmas Valley is a very small unincorporated village in the northern part of the Great Basin, sometimes called the Great Sandy Desert or Oregon High Country. Poverty and unemployment are high. Children go hungry. His idea was to hold a music festival every year to raise funds that would towards a program called “Brain Food” which provides after school food for the children who go home to an empty pantry. We would also set up a scholarship fund for a student from the local High School who wanted to pursue a music education.
Sign me up!
The first year we had a bunch of musicians and friends descend on Christmas Valley with a cobbled together sound system, an idea on how to get the community involved and pulled it off. The next year with a generous donation from one of the big farmers, we bought a complete sound system and brought in a couple of local bands to augment the Portland centric line up. The local library and food vendors setup booths and a water slide was also put up too. We were getting this down.
Last year was even better and we filed for non-profit status as the Christmas Valley Music Festival. Our efforts were able to raise enough money to provide the Brain Food with three months of feeding hungry kids. This year is going to be even better.
No more marching, no more organizing groups, although getting a bunch of musicians up at 9AM does have its challenges. Every one has the same mission, “feed the children who don’t have enough to eat.”
I have found my destination.