A Chance to Help Sheltered Families in Houston Area (Contribution Match!)

Ukulele Eddie

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There are literally thousands of kids living in shelters for the foreseeable future due to the devastation Harvey left behind in the Houston area. As part of our Luthiers for a Cause/Ukulele Kids Club effort, we are doing a special fundraising to get ukuleles to some of the kids and seniors who are shelter-bound for the foreseeable future.

We are commencing the effort by sending a few dozen ASAP and we want to send hundreds more. Every $40 donation will put a uke into the hands of a somebody dealing with the reality of having lost their home and possessions.

And here is a special bonus, several benefactors have agreed to match dollar-for-dollar the first $3K of donations for this effort!

@Mezcalero has organized some volunteers in the Houston area to help place the ukes and provide some lessons. Hawaii music supply is contributing tuners and also exploring other ways to help us get more ukes there.

You can donate directly to UKC at the link below. There is a note field toward the end where you may designate Harvey Relief (or Houston) and the money will be put to that purpose. 100% of the funds raised go to placing ukes to this special program.

https://www.luthiersforacause.org/donate-to-ukc/

Thank you!

P.S. Obviously, there have been other areas severely impacted by Irma as well as the earthquake in Mexico. When delivering instruments, we need boots on the ground to provide an introductory lesson and to revisit from time-to-time. As @mezcalero lives in Houston, he has been able to organize the local volunteers and so that is why we've focused on Houston for now.
 
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Thanks for the heads up, Eddie, and thanks especially to Kevin/mezcalero for your efforts! You guys are Da Bomb.
 
Having and helping two sons, three grand children and a step-daughter that live in Houston and its surrounding areas, I'm pretty tapped out.
Since Harvey, I have given them $21,000 and change. You want to match that?
 
Thanks for doing this. I just made a donation. Please keep us posted on how it all goes.
 
Having and helping two sons, three grand children and a step-daughter that live in Houston and its surrounding areas, I'm pretty tapped out.
Since Harvey, I have given them $21,000 and change. You want to match that?

They're fortunate to have your help. No wonder you're tapped out.
I hope that your family will be able to overcome all the difficulties that this hurricane brought their way.
 
@saltytri and @Joyful Uke, thank you for you contributions!

@cornfield, Very sorry to hear of the impact on your family members. Glad nobody was hurt other than your wallet!

@mezcalero will share pics when they first deliver ukes. First shipment of several dozen ukes should leave for Houston next week.
 
Outstanding project, thanks for your good work!

Kevin/Mezcalaro: I just sent a donation, tagged with your name towards covering the cost for sheet music for the kids, as discussed.
 
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Thank you to everyone who has donated. So far, we have $1,760 in donations for our Houston-specific relief effort. As a reminder, we have several benefactors matching the first $3,000 in donations that are received in September. Please, help us make them have to step up to their full commitments. ;-)

Donate here: https://www.luthiersforacause.org/donate-to-ukc/

Also, here is a fun video of @mezcalero showing one of the ukes from the first batch that will be distributed this week. After careful evaluation, I think his cat Xing Xing approved.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/grhjf8elrtlutsw/UKC Uke Sound Sample.mp4?dl=0


Thank you again to those who contributed and/or help spread the word, to The Ukulele Site for contributing tuners, to Cloud Music who makes these nice quality ukes for The Ukulele Kids Club, to UKC for helping us with this expanded efforts, and to Kevin Griffin (@mezcalero) and the other Houston volunteers for the time and effort they will make to distribute the ukes, providing some lessons and returning to visit the shelters.
 
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Thanks again to all who have donated! I'm excited about distributing the first batch of 25 ukuleles this week. Will follow up with some photos.

A big shout out to Andrew at HMS and his father at Pono for sending 100 tuners. I am not sure how long I would last leading a group of kids playing out of tune ukes :)
 
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Thanks to everyone who contributed and/or helped spread the word. A quick update that we raised in total $4,800 in Harvey-specific funds, including the match from benefactors. Cloud Music, who makes the ukes for the UKC program, helped us out with pricing so we were able to procure 135 ukes for Harvey Relief. Kevin and his volunteers have organized several programs to reach impacted kids. This includes starting an after-school program for students in one of the most heavily impacted areas; coordinating with a library the serves underprivileged youth to offer free uke lessons and ukes that can be checked out, and also reaching out to senior citizens via the Chinese Community Center to offer lessons twice per month.

Wonderful work helping kids deeply impacted by Hurricane Harvey. This is only made possible by the volunteers on the ground who are committed to making a difference. A BiG thank you to Kevin Griffin and those helping him!!!
https://redcrosschat.org/…/ukulele-kids-club-brings-healin…/

While the match program is over, you can still donate to UKC for their general mission of helping kids heal through pediatric hospital-based music therapy programs or for this special Harvey Relief effort. To designate funds for Harvey Relief, just add to the note section "Harvey Relief." All proceeds go straight to UKC. Luthiers for a Cause does not take anything.
 
I don't know how this post got by me for so long! I just made my donation, 1st ever to UKC. Thanks you guys, for doing all of this for kids!
 
Thrilled to check in here and see how many ukes this effort has procured for the kids in TX. Nice work! And thanks, Kevin, for your work on the ground...
 
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