Bands for Cans

During my high school years, I have seen multiple charity fundraisers. Food drives, toy drives, book drives, coat drives- I’ve participated in them all. These usually come with the promise that the homeroom that raises the most will get a donut breakfast. As thrilling as the thought of cold donuts and room temperature orange juice is, my classmates very rarely raise what is needed. This got me thinking about the local food bank that we were doing a food drive for. I had volunteered at Apotheca food bank with my church’s youth group multiple times, and a few times I had gone on my own. It is a nonprofit food bank that helps roughly 2,500 Tangipahoa residents each week. The owner, [Personal information removed by DoSomething.org administrator], started the food bank after her grandmother passed away. She and her husband were trying to put their oldest child through college while also caring for a special needs child, though Mrs. Barbara refused to let the food bank close. I knew of her struggles and wanted to help, though I couldn’t figure out how. Thanksgiving break rolled around, and I was finally able to devote more time towards my efforts to help Apotheca. After spending hours researching fundraising ideas and making lists of possibilities, I decided I needed to take a break. I went with a few of my friends to the Canvas Venue showcase of local bands in Ponchatoula. While there, I couldn’t believe how many people showed up (a statement was later released that there were 500+), if each of those kids paid $5 that was over $2,000! It suddenly hit me: a benefit concert. Bands would play for free, and we would have a cover charge of either $5 or 5 can food items. We would get the venue donated and have friends help out. I knew I couldn’t pull this off on my own, so I enlisted the help of my closest friend, Ray. He loved the idea and agreed to split the responsibilities with me. Together, we worked out our biggest issues: what bands would play, where the show would be held, and what we would call it. We notified the local band promoter of local bands, and let the gig news spread through word of mouth. There was a lot of positive feedback. The venue situation was quickly narrowed down to renting the Ponchatoula Community Center. As for the name, there was a lot of dispute. We couldn’t decide, so finally we let our friends decide. We sent out an email to a few people and asked them to decide between our two choices: Rock Can Roll, or Bands for Cans. They were pretty close in votes, but Bands for Cans won. The final issue was the date. We wanted it to take place before the Christmas holidays, so we chose December 18- a day that was only 3 weeks away. There was a lot to be done, but first we needed to get an adult sponsor. Monday morning we went to our school’s vice principal, Mrs. Crovetto, to ask her to be our adult sponsor. We knew she had experience in planning events but most of all, we knew she had connections. Mrs. Crovetto agreed to help and told us that anything she needed us to do, she would. By that time we had already gotten the venue request approved, but we had an issue of security. Mrs Crovetto said that she would take care of that for us. She was definitely the right choice. With less than 3 weeks until the event, we sat down that night and made a to do list that was about a mile long. Our next stop was Apotheca, to let them know about what we were planning. When we told them the general idea, Mrs Barbara hugged us and kept thanking us again and again. She kept saying that we were such a blessing, that we were saving her. It was then that I realized what we were doing. We weren’t putting together a show for our friends. We were saving lives, and helping people. The next three weeks were a blur, filled with lunches spent in Mrs Crovetto’s office, to do lists that seemed to get longer each day and late nights emailing people. Looking back, its amazing that we accomplished this, but somehow it all came together. We had so many people helping out, including Mr. Strickland, our school’s principal, who volunteered to hire the janitors to clean up after the event out of his own wallet. We also had a tremendous help from a local business who donated over $200, which fully covered the cost of renting the community center. Our school’s clubs even volunteered to work as event staff. Ray and I had started this thinking that we were going to do the whole thing on our own, but by the end of it we realized that this event was bigger than we were. It was a community coming together to help out a group that had helped us for years. That is what I believe community service is all about. It is the give and take in our world. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to save lives. Bands for Cans was the first event I had ever taken full charge of from beginning to end, and I cannot wait to have Bands for Cans 2011.